Symphony of Destruction
by Jade Ice
Summary: Seifer is readmitted to Garden after a drunken encounter with Selphie, and dead bodies start showing up. Selphie is worried but not just about the murders. Irvine's hiding something and Seifer is beginning to care about Selphie. (SeiferXSelphie)
1. A Second Chance

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, any characters within or placed involved.  Original characters and places are my own. 

Warning: If you didn't bother to read the summery, this fanfic involves (but is not limited to) a serial killer.  Though the story does not completely revolve around the killer there will be tense parts.  And as anyone who has ever read about anything related to serial killers, they are not kind.  This story may disturb some, please use your own discretion.

For those that aren't scared: Thanks for reading my story.  Main character is Seifer and this is his life a year after the events of the game.

Jade_ice17@hotmail.com

Chapter I: A Second Chance 

****

            The hansom blonde sat on his bar stool listening to the loud rambunctious sounds of the bar goers.  The mood was heavy with celebration and alcohol.  The celebration didn't stick with him but the alcohol sure did.  He stared at the bottom of his eighth beer; he had started to buzz at six.  Never mind the shots he had earlier.  The bartender at "Pirate's Cove" a small but happy bar in Deling City wondered why the blonde had been in so often.  Alone.

            He used to come in with two others, a silver haired girl and a large man.  After a while though, they stopped coming in with him.  She watched him as he stared at the bottom of his mug, looking for answers maybe?  

            "Want another round?"  The bartender asked.

            He looked startled for a second then answered, "Yeah, but gimme something hard."  A thoughtful look in his eyes, "Three shots of tequila."

            "Coming right up, sugar."  She winked and he looked amused for a moment.  Out of the corner of her eye she noticed two people leaving, a man and woman.

*          *            *

            "Oh man, I really got to pee!"  Selphie cried out anxiously to her two comrades.  Rinoa laughed and Quistis simply rolled her eyes.  "Can we please stop somewhere?!"

            "All right."  Quistis sighed.  "But let's not take too long."

            "See Selphie, I told you not to break the seal."  Rinoa laughed again.  "Since you've been drinking you'll have to go every ten minutes now."

            "Hey, there's a bar."  Selphie exclaimed, ignoring Rinoa.  Quickly Selphie rushed into the Pirate's Cove leaving Quistis and Rinoa outside to wait.  They leaned against the wall, taking in the air.  This was the first time in a month that they had the chance to get out.  Garden had been in a constant state of roaming since the events a year ago.  Garden was now receiving new students, that's what had brought them to Deling City in the first place.  Eleven new students boarded Garden, also seven new staff.  Sharing the silence in comfort, Rinoa and Quistis waited for Selphie.  After about five minutes they began to wonder what was taking Selphie so long.  A man and woman walked out, obviously the woman was quite drunk.

            "You figure she fell in."  Rinoa's voice broke the silence.  Quistis laughed.  When Selphie exited however, the laugh died.  Selphie was half-holding up a man.

            And they all knew exactly who it was: Seifer Almasy.  Selphie smiled meekly, "Look who I found."  Rinoa and Quistis were stunned, what the hell was Selphie doing?

            "I think he drank too much."  Selphie's eyes were shadowed with worry.  Seifer couldn't seem to stand that well on his own.  "We have to help him."

            "Selphie, this is the guy that caused us so much trouble last year.  How can you even think that?"  Snapped Quistis sourly.  Seifer's legs meanwhile looked like they were going to give out at any minute.  He was in shambles compared to when they had last seen him.  Then he had been so determined and courageous, even if he was on the wrong side.  Now, well he looked like a drunk.

            "This is also the guy we grew up with."  Selphie replied sternly.  "And I'm not going to abandon him.  Everyone needs a second chance."  The other two realized that they couldn't change her mind.  Even they had the same thoughts at one time.

            "All right, load him into the car."

*          *            *

            In his drunken blur Seifer vaguely recalled being put into a vehicle, must have been a cab.  Then he was all but poured into a building that seemed very familiar.  A cute brunette asked him to sign some papers, which he assumed to be for a hotel room.  The girl laughed a little when she looked at the papers, giving a secretive smile.  Seifer was holding himself up on a desk.  

            "You look really familiar."  He leaned across the table (or was it a desk?) and tried to get a better look at her.  Unfortunately his vision was too blurred to be able to figure out which one of the two girls in front of him was the familiar one. 

            "You'll remember me tomorrow."  She smiled, and despite himself, Seifer smiled too.  A real smile, he hadn't done that in a long time.  "Let's take him to his room."  She motioned at four other girls and then he was 'helped' into his room.  It didn't look too bad, compared the places he had been living in the past year.  Seifer couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity though; even the smell reminded him of something.  When the two other girls (maybe two) left, he was alone with just the cute brunette.  He started to take off his trench coat but his hands felt numb.

            "Let me help you."  The brunette said as she pulled off his coat from behind.

            "Easy," Seifer attempted to say with grace, "I'd like to thank you and everything but I just met you."

            The only reply he got for a while was a bubbling giggle.  "Don't worry stud, I won't take advantage of you. And on an unrelated note, there's the bed."  Seifer didn't care at this point and happily crashed onto the bed face first.  "Just make sure you sleep on your side or your back, kay?"  Seifer who was already plummeting into sleep didn't hear her.

*          *            *

            "Squall's gonna have your head on a stick when he finds out about those papers, Selphie."  Worry lined Rinoa's eyes.  "I don't want you to get into trouble."

            "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

*          *            * 

            Seifer woke the next morning with the worst hangover he had ever had.  He covered his eyes with his arm to block out the sun's stinging rays.  _How much did I have to drink last night?_  Seifer knew it was probably more then usual, he had spent most of the last month drunk and lately had been drinking until he blacked out.  _I've only been drinking to drown out the pain.  I'm so weak._  He was all alone now, Raijin and Fujin were off with their own lives now, he made sure of that.  _But I've been lost, I don't have a purpose anymore.  Look at the Sorceress' Knight now._  He thought bitterly.  The last year had been the worst time of his life.  He had been taking odd jobs to pay the rent on the little dives he had rented.  None of them were a chance to really make something of himself again.  Seifer hated the way his life had turned.  

            The scent of the room reminded him of when he was in Garden.  Painful memories stabbed at his heart.  _How could I have betrayed them like that? Those people had been the people I grew up with.  However much I liked or disliked them.  They were my family, the only family I had._  Secretly he wished he could take it all back, make himself into something better than what he had become now.  A knock came at the door and broke his thoughts.  Slowly he moved his arms from his eyes.

            Then his whole world shattered.

            He was in Garden.  Garden!  How the hell did he get here?  

            "Hello?  Are you awake?"  Selphie Tilmitt.  He was sure of it.  No one else had that sickeningly cute voice.  "I'm coming in."  The door opened and Selphie stepped in wearing her SeeD uniform.  What disturbed him more was the second uniform she held under her arm.

            "How did I get here?"  Seifer asked cautiously, standing up from the bed.

            Selphie blushed a little, "I brought you here last night, and you were really drunk.  I thought you might die."  Seifer grunted indignantly.

            "It takes more than that to kill me."  Seifer's eyes ran over Selphie.  In the year that they had been apart she seemed to have gained more professional presence and a hell of a lot more confidence.  Now she didn't look so out of place in that uniform.

            "I was still worried."  She stated clearly.  "And now you have to go see Commander Leonhart.  About these papers."

            _Commander Leonhart?  Squall?  Oh boy, what next?  _"And why should I?  Why would Squall care if I got smashed last night?"  Seifer could feel his temperature raising.  "And what do those papers have to do with anything?  That's it, I'm leaving."  Seifer grabbed his coat and walked for the door.

            "You can't."  Selphie gave a mischievous smile.  "According to these papers, you a student in Garden again."

*          *            *

            "Did you just hear the sound of a man's soul being ripped in two?"  Zell asked as he munched on a hotdog.  

            Irvine raised his eyebrow at Zell, "You mean the scream?"

*          *            *

            Squall was sitting at his desk sipping black coffee.  The coffee was about as bright as his mood.  From what Rinoa had mumbled last night before falling asleep, Seifer was in Garden.  He brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes with exasperation.  This is just what he needed.

            He heard scuffling outside and a voice call quickly, "Commander Leonhart-stop that- requesting permission to enter."  It was Selphie.  Before he had the chance to grant permission a hard boot kicked in the door.

            Seifer, in what appeared to be hangover glory, barged in with Selphie hot on his trial.  He strode up to Squall and planted his hands firmly on his desk.  His eyes were burning with fury centered right at Squall.

            "What is the meaning of this?"  Seifer slammed his fist on Squall's desk in anger.

            "I'd like to ask you the same thing!"  Squall rose to his feet and imitated Seifer's pose on the desk.  He felt the same anger creep up on him.  "Why are you in my Garden?"

            "Commander," Selphie broke in looking distraught.  "I brought him here.  I thought he was in trouble."

            "And what's this about my being a student at Garden again?"  Seifer seethed.  

Squall was just as surprised as Seifer had been.  _He's what?_  Then the thought occurred to him, "Selphie."

            A quick and apologizing grin came over her face.  "Uh, I kinda thought it was a good idea at the time.  See, last night I got him to sign a few sheets that made him a student again.  You know, the admittance forms."  Again she smiled, weakly.  "And as the rules go in garden he's a student for at least one year."

            Squall felt a headache coming on and sat down.  "I know the rules."  He rubbed his temples with his right hand.  

            "Hey, I ain't any happier than you are.  What the hell am I going to do here?"  Seifer growled in the general direction of Squall.  "Besides, I already have all the training."

            "_All the training."_  Those words ran through Squall's head a few times then he got an evil grin on his face.  "Well then, maybe you can be of some use."  He glared at Selphie who gulped.  "But, you'll need a mentor.  Selphie, you're that mentor."  Squall began to laugh, eyes dancing with amusement.  "You're going to be a SeeD after all Seifer.  Under Selphie's command."

            Seifer looked as if he would pass out with humiliation.  Selphie beamed and paled with the promotion.  Seifer was about to voice his view on all this but Squall cut him off.

            "No."  He waved his gloved hand.  "I'm going to accept you as a SeeD but don't push your luck.  I know you used to be a good man, show me you can be one again."  Squall watched as Seifer got a sharp look of pain on his face.

            "All right."  Seifer said defeated.

            "Okay!"  Selphie cried out happily, she _wasn't_ going to get discharged.  "Let me show you your permanent residence."

            "You realize that you'll be rooming together now?"  Squall said calmly.  Selphie's eyes rolled back and she hit the ground.

*          *            *

            Seifer dumped his duffle bag of stuff into the sleeping quarters on the right, closest to the door.  The only other belongings he had were his Hyperion and a box that he nearly took Selphie's head off when she tried to see what was in it.  He listened with annoyance as Selphie ordered a cadet where to put her fifth and final box of stuff.  _Why do women have so many things anyway?_  He thought as the cadet saluted her and left when his job was done.

            "All settled in Seifer?"  Selphie poked her head into his door.  Seifer took three steps and was an inch away from her.  He glared down at her.

            "Never come in here."  His sober look was busted when she poked him in the stomach.  

            "Don't get tough with me."  Her voice was full of authority.  "Remember, I own you."  Infuriated, Seifer slammed the door on her.  "Oh, well could have been worse."  Selphie hummed to herself as she set to work on putting her things away.

*          *            *

            On the way to the cafeteria Seifer overheard a group of girls talking about a murder in Deling City.  He managed to lose Selphie by 11:00.  For the better, he surmised, he had better things to think about.  What was Selphie pulling anyway?  Why would she want him in Garden again after… everything?  He had become a SeeD none-the-less.  This is what he had wanted so badly before.  All these thoughts screamed through his head as he got his food and sat down.  Seifer already accepted that he was here for a year.  He wouldn't back down from a contract, even if he was drunk beyond all hell last night.

A student sat at his table and Seifer looked up from his food and away from his thoughts.  The male student turned pale and mumbled something.

"What?"  Seifer said shortly.

"I'm sorry Sir, I didn't realize it was you."  With that the student picked up his food and fled to the other side of the cafeteria.   Seifer sat thinking about that for a minute.  He liked being called Sir it made him feel powerful.  Seifer realized that he hated authority unless it was his own.  And for once, Seifer didn't have to intimidate anyone for it.  The student freely gave it to him.  This was a definite first.  

But he turned his pondering back to Selphie, that odd little creature.  _Why is she helping me out anyway?  I never asked her to.  Why is she giving me a chance when she knows I could wreak havoc in Garden?_

He laughed a little at himself, just this morning he wished for a chance to take everything back.  Maybe this _was_ his chance to take things back.

*          *            *

            Well, that's it for chapter one, sorry nothing romantic yet.  But wait, it will come.  The storyline will get rolling a little more smoothly in the next chapter.  That's when Garden finds it's first victim…


	2. The First Or Fourth?

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, any characters within or placed involved.  Original characters and places are my own. Chapter II: The First… or Fourth? 

****

            Seifer was beginning to settle in to Garden seven days later… well, as much as he could settle in anyway.  In his first week back at Garden he had gone on one mission, which was far too easy in his mind.  It was a simple observation mission, making sure that the election for Mayor went well in Timber.  Even after a year there was still a little tension from Galbadia.  In the meantime, he spent most of his time in the new addition to the training area.  The new addition was stocked up with higher-level monsters, to keep the SeeDs and students showing incredible determination in top shape.

            This was where he was now.  He watched with cold eyes as a ruby dragon shuddered its last ounce of life out.  Seifer stretched a little and decided to head back to his dorm- his and _Selphie's_ dorm, he reminded himself- and take a shower and a nap.  On his way to the cafeteria he noticed another SeeD enter, a tall man.  No one he knew however and he dismissed the face quickly.  

            When he entered the dorm he realized he wasn't alone.  The usually rambunctious Selphie sat in her room looking worried.  Seifer had noticed that she had seemed exceedingly nervous lately.  At first he had assumed it was because of his presence but when she didn't even acknowledge him he banished the thought.  Now that he thought harder on it, Selphie hadn't quite seemed like the overanxious girl he knew before.  Often he caught at in these moments, silent and twisting a ring on her finger. 

            "Yo."  Seifer leaned against her doorframe.  Selphie looked startled at his voice, perhaps she never even noticed he was there.

            "Hi."  Quickly regaining herself, "Good work on the last mission."  This was the first bit of praise he had gotten, not that he cared.

            "So when's the next one."  He asked.  The last took a total of four days and Seifer was getting antsy to do something.

            "Not sure."  She replied honestly, "I'm pretty sure we're getting new orders today."  Before Selphie could elaborate a frantic knock came at the door.  "Enter."

            Another SeeD opened the door, wasting no time in closing it.  "Ms. Tilmitt," He grasped for words and breath.  His face had gone nearly white and his eyes dull with shock.  Seifer realized it was the SeeD he had seen earlier.  "There's been a body discovered."

            "What!  Are you serious Eric?"  Selphie flew from her bed, almost knocking Seifer over in her attempt to reach the SeeD.  "Where, when?"

            "In the new addition."  Eric looked like he about to throw up.  "I just found her."

*          *            *

            Within minutes all of Balamb Garden was in an uproar.  It docked at Deling City and police were called in.  Students gathered just outside of the training area, eager to find out who it was.  Selphie, Seifer, Eric and Squall stood at the scene with two police officers.  The body was almost unrecognizable it was so mutilated.  Strangely the face was untouched.

            "Holy shit."  Seifer cringed.  He had seen dead people before but this was hideous.  The girl couldn't have been older than 17 was naked, staring lifelessly into the great beyond in a pool of her own blood.  The torso was slit from breast to naval in a ragged tear.  One arm was broken, lying in an unnatural position.  The rest… Seifer couldn't even think about the rest, the poor girl was obviously raped as well.  Who could have done such an outrageous act?  Selphie dashed to a nearby set of bushes and unloaded her lunch.

            "This is terrible."  Squall smothered his face with his hand.  There was silence as the officers took pictures and spoke quietly to each other about the corpse.  One of the officers, with a look of supreme curiosity on his face, turned the body on its side and examined the back.

            "Oh fuck.  Come look at this."  He motioned for his partner.  Seifer felt a stab of horror when he saw it.  A huge cross was cut into her back, intricate patterning set in human flesh.  "Just like those other three in the city."

            Seifer was the first to snap out of the trance.  "Other three?"  _Holy Hyne, this isn't the first?  _

            "Yeah, for the last three weeks we've been finding them."  The officer took out a smoke and lit it, looking distraught.  "Can't figure out who it is though.  No clues to connect to the murderer at all.  We can't even figure out these crosses."  He took a long drag on his cigarette.

            "Which brings us to another thing."  The second officer stepped in.  "This case is out of our jurisdiction," She got a sorrowful look on her face.  "I've been ordered by the Police Chief to enlist the services of SeeD."

            "It's already our problem now."  Squall sighed.  "Who the hell am I gonna get to take on this job?"  He thought aloud, not realizing he had actually said it.

            "I'll take it."  Seifer spoke clearly with ill-suppressed rage.  Something about this seemed so utterly _wrong_ to him.  It disturbed his very soul.  Squall was about to bark out no but then he closed his mouth and opened his mind.

            "You would be the best suited."  Squall said rationally.  "There aren't too many others that would be able to handle it."

            _Well at least he understands my talents._  Seifer thought.  _It looks like we have a serial killer on our hands._

*          *            *

            When Seifer and Selphie got back to their room, she blew up on him.  "How could you _volunteer_ for this?"  Selphie paced back and forth between their two rooms.  Seifer simply watched, arms crossed and leaning against a door frame.  "This, this _atrocity_ can't be handled by us!  This is the work of the police."

            "May I remind you that they hired _us_ to solve this?"  A raised eyebrow was Seifer's only physical response.  

            "And you think that we're trained to solve this?"  She pointed an accusing finger at him.  This event had caused Selphie's worry to overflow entirely.  Seifer knew she had been on edge recently (he didn't know why though) and, not that he'd admit it, he was worried about his partner's mental health.

            "We have taken classes," Seifer blocked her from being able to pass in her delirious pacing.  He grabbed her arm before she was able to bolt for the door; she had the look of 'I'm going to cancel my participation in this mission'-look.  "Remember, before we were SeeDs?"  The tension in her shoulders relaxed a little at his words and she blushed a little.  "We can do this."  Selphie's blush faded as gave him a cold assessing look, as if sizing him up.  He shivered a little at her gaze.  He never noticed it before but Selphie was actually quite attractive, once you get past that annoying perky personality.

Too bad she was dating Irvine.

"You're right."  Selphie sighed, conceding defeat.  She seemed to have loosened up a little.  "We'll just focus on this…" Her voice trailed off into oblivion and worry shadowed her eyes, just as it had when she was twisting her ring.  "And I have had experience in murder cases.  You ever read about the Galbadian politicians scandal?"  Seifer vaguely remembered, through alcohol muddled memories, that one politician had covertly hired a hit man to take out the opposition during an election.

And surprisingly, the hit man wasn't Seifer.  A shudder of guilt ripped through him.  "Yeah, I remember it."

"That was me.  I uncovered the case."  Selphie's eyes lightened a little with triumph.  "You'd be surprised what politicians will do to retain their power."

"I doubt it."  Seifer replied, releasing her arm.  Again the guilty demons poked at his soul.  Manual labour wasn't the only dirty job he'd taken in the last year.  He pushed the guilt out, as much as he could, and continued.  "Let's take a look at our new office.  I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time there."

*          *            *

            The office was located on the second floor, by the classrooms.  It was sparsely furnished; a large table, chairs, a couch, and a coffee maker.  Seifer knew they'd be using that a lot.  The lights were dim but the room was illuminated by a large shadow box.  It was used primarily for putting pictures, x-rays or letters on.  The most relevant addition to the room however was the police officer standing by the table.  

            It was the male police officer; he was around the same height as Seifer and he had short black hair.  His face was somber, and his purple eyes penetrating.  There was immediate tension between Seifer and him.  _Authority that isn't my own…_  Seifer thought.

            "In accordance with Deling City Police policy I will be the assisting officer on this case."  His words were stern and left no room for disagreement.  Seifer could tell from his mannerisms that the officer was used to giving commands and expected immediate response.  At least he was professional.  "My name is Officer Damian Leon."

            "I'm Selphie Tilmitt and this is Seifer Almasy."  Selphie introduced them.  Seifer decided it would be better to let Selphie deal with him rather then getting into an unavoidable fight.  Two Alpha males could never work together well.

            Leon slapped down a file about five inches thick on the table, followed by a thinner folder.  "This one is the pictures from the previous crime scenes, and this," He pointed to the smaller folder, "Is what little we've been able to come up with."

            "Then let's take a look."  Seifer said as he opened the photo folder.  When he saw the first photo a wave of nausea rolled over him.  This was going to be a long day.

*          *            *

            After four hours of pouring over photos, reading reports and organizing the photos on the shadow box in chronological order Seifer couldn't come up with much.  There was no physical evidence to speak of regarding the identity of the killer.  No prints, no footmarks, no…anything.  

            "Let's get down to the motive of the killer."  Leon said.  "Judging by the cross _carved_ into the victims backs, he must be religious."  He gave a sidelong glance at Seifer's trench coat and Seifer in turn gave him the middle finger.  

            "Maybe he feels he's a avatar of Hyne."  Selphie thought deeply.  "Like he's performing Hyne's will by killing the sinners."

            "Good idea.  We'll have to check into the victims personal lives."  Leon lit up a smoke and Selphie snuffed at him.  She hated cigarette smoke.  "We'll look for anything that might seem like deviant behaviour to the religious.  Sex lives, drug use, atheism, cruelty."

            _This sounds like we're putting the victims on trail._  Seifer thought.  Deep down he believed that these four girls were victims, having not done anything wrong themselves.  A shadow of an idea was coming to him but he couldn't grasp it yet.  He needed more to go on.  He looked at the pictures as Selphie and Leon theorized about the killer.  In every case the girls had been mutilated and raped.  The cross in their backs was the other connection.  Their faces were untouched however, perhaps the killer savoured the untainted look of pain on their faces.  Seifer's skin crawled when he thought about that.  _Who could take pleasure in someone else's pain?_  The very thought sickened him.  It was true that he had tortured people before, but he always felt guilt and remorse afterwards.  

            His eyes caught onto one of the pictures.  He examined more closely then looked at the others, checking if his assumption was right.  The faces were left untouched but in each victim an earring was ripped out of their left ear.  "Hey,"  he called to the other two.  "I think I found something."

*          *            *

            Today they found the first body in Garden.  They've already found the other three in Deling city.  Isn't that great Mother?  I feel their Pain, the girls each found a way into my heart.  Unlike the other hearts that were too black to let them in.  Why did that have to happen to them?  Life can be so cruel Mother, just like you were.  But I learned from our time together Mother.  I learned Mother.  And you taught me valuable lessons Mother.  So I taught those girls.  And because I could teach them I saved them.  I saved them from themselves.  They won't feel the Pain anymore.  Not like the Pain I have to feel.  But if this is what I have to do, I will.  No one should feel the Pain I have Mother.  You and I both felt that Pain Mother.  Remember when father left?  He is a bad man.  I'm glad you punished his sin out of me Mother, I don't want to be like him.  We loved him, didn't we Mother?  But he's a bad man.  I don't want to be bad like him, Mother.

~*        *            *~

Notes:  And there's chapter two for ya.  In case you're wondering, I'm not going to go into the killer's mind just yet.  But that little letter at the end does give you some insight into the killer's mind.  They'll be lots of those.  Seifer and co never sees them until the end, but because you're the readers you get to see them!  Reviews are greatly appreciated and so are flames, if they're reasonable.  Don't come complaining because of the content, I put a warning before chapter one so you should've stopped then.  Also I changed the title because it was more fitting, I kind of just made up a title so I could post chapter one.

jade_ice17@hotmail.com

PS- if anyone can come up with a better summery, please do.  E-mail me your summery and I'll choose the best.  Please help me out here, I suck at summaries!


	3. I'm With You

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, any characters within or placed involved.  Original characters and places are my own. Chapter III: "I'm With You" 

Squall paced the length of his office tirelessly.  This was a crisis.  It was bad enough the murder had happened in Garden but the suspect list was long.  He had gotten from a courier a few minutes ago.  It included seven of the eleven new students, and three of the new staff that had come from Deling City a week ago.  Including a top ranking SeeD.  The others were women, and according to the _incidents _involved in the murders, they had been ruled out.

Murder and rape in his Garden.  _Hyne, what else can go wrong?_  _Zell gets scurvy from only eating those damn hotdogs all the time?  _Well, Squall did have to laugh at that.  

A knock came at his door before he could chase his thoughts.  "Enter."  Rinoa stepped inside and saluted.  When she saluted she always meant business.

"Squall, I have to leave on a diplomatic mission immediately."  She stated, directly bypassing small talk.  

"What?"  Squall questioned, completely astonished.  Rinoa had become a diplomat for Garden (and pretty much the whole world) since the events a year ago.  Her sorceress power of empathy helped.   She had also become the surrogate mother to about half of Garden.  She always knew how to comfort people.  "But the students need you here.  I need you here."

"I'm sorry Squall."  Rinoa sighed.  "The tension is rising between Timber and Galbadia after the elections.  Apparently the new mayor made a choice comment about Galbadia.  If I don't go in and resolve this, it could end in a war."  She must have sensed Squall's unease, "Don't worry, I'll only be gone a few days at the most."  

Squall knew he couldn't change her mind.  It had been Rinoa that liberated Timber in the first place, and it was still her passion.  He always loved her for that passion.

"Alright Rinoa."  Squall gave a sigh of stress.  He just hoped, no _prayed,_ nothing terrible happened in the next few days.

*          *            *

            "What is it?"  Leon's attention was immediately diverted to Seifer.

            "The earrings are ripped out of each of the victims left ear."  Seifer's skin crawled, it was just plain _creepy._  Leon examined the pictures and ended staring at the first with intense anger in his eyes.  Seifer could tell that Leon was thinking furiously, about what he couldn't speculate.

            "I can't believe I missed that."  He seethed.  "This means the killer probably has them all in his possession.  Serial killers often take mementoes of their victims."

            "They do?"  Selphie asked.  

            "Ya, but sometimes they eat them."  Selphie paled at Leon's words.  "By eating part of the body, they figure that the victim will be with them forever."  Selphie ran for the garbage can.  

Seifer laughed a little to himself.  _That garbage can is now officially the 'puke bucket.'  _She had been in there earlier in the day, courtesy of the pictures.  Leon turned away from her and lit another smoke.  Seifer was feeling like one himself at the moment.  As funny as Selphie's behaviour was to him, the mission was still as serious as they came.

"So what does this tell us about the killer?"  Leon quizzed them.  Mainly Seifer though, Selphie still had her head in the bucket.

"Sentimental."  Seifer pondered aloud.  "He must have known the victims before hand.  Had some sort of an emotional attachment to them.  We better put in if they knew about each other in the background checks.  Also see who knew them."  The clock rang for supper throughout Garden.

"Quitting time."  Leon stated bluntly.  "If you overwork yourself on a case you'll go squirrelly."

*          *            *

            Selphie had a bad feeling.  She had had this feeling for a long time now, starting a couple of months ago.  She twisted her ring every time she thought about it.  That feeling of horrible dread when you knew something was about to go very wrong stuck with her.  Her shoulders were tense, her stomach was in knots, and her brow set in a worried furrow.

            She was going to see Irvine.

            The last couple months had been hard.  Irvine had been distancing himself from her and she didn't _know_ why.  She had her suspicions though, and what she thought disturbed her more than the distancing.  It wasn't like before, when he had taken her for countless candlelit dinners and romanced her in every way.  Now the only time they got together was for a tumble between the sheets.  It was true that their time was divided with missions but that was no excuse.  Irvine was occupied with something else.

            _Or some one else_.

            Selphie pushed back tears that threatened to spill as she reached his door.  She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.  She knew he wasn't on a mission right now, she had asked Squall.  She was silent for ten seconds but no one answered.  "Irvine?"  She knocked again with the same response.

            The petite brunette steeled herself and pressed her ear against the door.  Thankfully she heard nothing come from his room.  Which was a lot better then _some_ noises that could penetrate through doors.  _He isn't home._  Selphie settled on going for a trip to the Quad to clear her mind.  The Quad always reminded her of good memories.

            When she reached there, she reminisced about the Garden Festival she threw three months ago.  That was the last time her and Irvine had been really close.  It was a wonderful night complete with fireworks and love.

            Selphie reached a bench that held special importance to her.  During the peak of the fireworks Irvine had given her the ring that was on her finger now.  

            _"Selphie?"  Irvine looked a little nervous to her._

_            "Yes Irvy?"  Selphie gave him a gaze of pure joy at that moment in time.  The fireworks had been splendorous._

_            "I want to," He stuttered for words then.  "I want to give you this."  He held out a small box, opened, with a gold ring with a yellow gemstone in it.  Selphie's eyes danced with the reflection of the fireworks and love for Irvine._

_            "It's gorgeous."  She sang, almost a little afraid to touch it._

_            "It's a promise ring."  Irvine had told her.  "We're still pretty young but I want to promise that one day…"_

_            Selphie never let him finish.  She had given him the most memorable kiss in her life then._

Selphie sighed a little.  Back then everything had seemed so perfect.  She loved Irvine and her love was returned.  Twisting the ring, Selphie sat on the bench and thought how things were changing between her and Irvine.

            "Oh stop, you."  A female voice, full of sexual playfulness, came from the balcony attached to the Garden.  It was a new addition.  A low laugh thick with desire was the only response.  Selphie thought she heard a response too but it was too low to understand.  "What again?  This is the third time today."  The girl came into sight, making herself oh-so-conveniently trapped against the balcony rail.

            _Do those damn students ever stop?  _Selphie thought bitterly.  Suddenly her sense of tension and worry extinguished as the man stepped into view-

            And the Heavens fell.  It was Irvine.  _Oh Hyne, it was Irvine._  And the couple started getting hot and heavy right on the balcony before retreating back into Garden, presumably into the dorms.

            Agonizing tears streamed down Selphie's face.  She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think.  But she felt her heart shatter into thousands of tiny pieces of pain.  Shock tore through her soul.  _I need to be alone, and out of sight._  Selphie ran for her room, but not before she ripped the ring off her finger.

*          *            *

            Seifer was currently enjoying a very hot shower.  It was close to ten and the light had faded from the sky in a swirl of colours.  He ran his fingers through his hair, enjoying the feeling.  He got out and toweled himself off, putting on plaid sleeping pants and a tight black t-shirt.  Normally he slept naked but he wanted go into the 'mystery box' as Selphie called it for a while first.  He didn't think Selphie would be back for a while because she had gone to see Irvine.  He liked having time alone, that way he could practice.  He was just sitting onto his bed when Selphie barged in the door and slammed it closed with her body.  She braced her small frame against the door and shuddered with silent sobs.

            She was _crying_.

            Her eyes were shut tightly but the tears still poured out.  Selphie made a step for her room and froze when she saw Seifer.  A look of utter horror crossed her face under the tears.

            "I forgot you where here."  She said meekly.  Seifer thought she looked smaller than usual right now, like her fiery spirit had somehow been extinguished.  Shame covered her face now.  "I didn't want anyone to see me like this."

            "What happened?"  Seifer asked, genuine concern in his voice.  He had never seen her as anything but perky or professional.  This event changed how he thought of her entirely.  

            "Irv.."  Selphie sobbed, trying to get out the words.  "Irvine's," her tears took on a new vengeance.  "Irvine's cheating."  

_He's what?  _Seifer felt a pierce of sympathy mixed with anger.  _No one does that to Selphie._  "Can I do anything for you?"  Seifer was never good at dealing with crying people but he felt the overwhelming need to help Selphie.  

"No I," Selphie's breathing was erratic.  "I need to be alone right now Seifer."  With that she retreated to her room and closed the door.  Seifer stood in the living room, feeling quite bewildered.  Selphie had been hurt, terribly hurt.  He had never seen her cry, and deep down it disturbed him.  _Selphie should be treated better than that._  Seifer realized that he actually gave a damn about someone else.

He burst into her room on that thought.  "Selphie you need someone right now."  Seifer enlightened her with true caring in his voice.  She had been sitting on the edge of her bed with her head down, but now she looked at him wide eyed and stopped crying for a moment.  "You helped me Selphie, now it's my turn to help you."  Seifer did something most unexpected then, he sat beside her and wrapped her in his arms.  _I hope this helps._

Slowly Selphie raised her arms and embraced him too.  She cried into his shoulder.  "Thank you."  Seifer tightened his arms around her.  In what emotion, Seifer didn't know yet.

"I'm with you Selphie."  _I'm with you._

~*        *            *~

Notes:  Sorry how short this chapter is, but because I got so many reviews on the first two chapters I thought I'd try to get chapter up more often, even if they are short.  Kinda had to make it short anyway, Selphie was the main focus of the story in this part.  And just in case you were wondering, in my fanfic they don't have forensic labs and all that.  Just to make it harder for my characters ^_^

And just in case anyone was wondering, I've been meaning to do this story for _months _but haven't had the time.  I wanted to do it as a challenge to myself.  So in later chapters please tell me in your reviews if Seifer and Selphie's relationship seems like it could actually work or not.  Remember to review and I'll adore you!


	4. A Long Awaited Lead

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, any characters within or placed involved.  Original characters and places are my own.

Chapter IV:  A Long Awaited Lead 

****

            Two days later they weren't any closer to figuring it out.  Selphie seemed like she was back to her cheery self whenever she was in public but Seifer could sometimes hear her crying at night.  He was absolutely baffled on what he could do for her.

            Besides kill Irvine.

            Seifer couldn't believe that Irvine would cheat on Selphie when she was so completely loyal to him.  Loyalty could move mountains in Seifer's opinion.  Seifer even discreetly asked Quistis to find out whom Irvine was cheating on Selphie with.  It was no secret that Selphie and Irvine had been dating for over a year and any girl that would willingly start something up with Irvine obviously didn't have any respect for honour.  

            Leon mumbled something to Selphie as they read over a report they had gotten that day.  It was about the goings on of the suspects.  Three of the new students had proven alibis during the murders and so did one of the new staff.  There were still five other people on the suspect list however that weren't new to Garden.  Three were SeeDs and two were students that were working on a rebellious reputation to rival Seifer's.  

            But they'd never be able to match his, he thought with a chuckle.  No one ever would.

            "Hey Almasy," Called Leon.  "You have enough time to trial Denman?"  Denman was one of the Seifer-wannabes.

            "Yeah, when?"  Seifer and Leon were starting to get used to being around each other now.  Leon understood Seifer's inability to take orders and had given up; instead he had Seifer do his own part and kept out of his business mostly.  Seifer thought Leon was a little like himself, he _smelled_ the same rebellion on him.  Leon never said anything about himself personally and preferred not to socialize with him.  Seifer knew that Leon had had his rough times too; the little scars that only came from knife fighting, the gruff voice, the way he always watched his back, and the way he could focus himself.  Seifer and Leon still had their stand-offs now and again but were learning to cope.

            "Tomorrow."  Leon never let anything through in his facial expressions, unless it came to his disgust about the victims.  "He has leave to go to Deling City, I want you to see where he goes and who he visits."

            "Easy enough."  Seifer shrugged his shoulders like it _was_ the simplest task in the world.  He had done- _unofficial-_ missions like this before when he was working as a mercenary after the event last year.  He would done a disguise and tail Denman, watching his every move.  Most likely he would go to bars, unless he was out killing, as the report on him stated.  Apparently Denman liked a good bar fight- even if it was with instructors.

*          *            *

            Selphie was making her way back to her room after supper when a female student approached her.  Her eyes were red and she looked supremely sorrowful.  

            "Ms. Tilmitt," The student said with a shaky voice.  "Can I talk to you please?  Ms. Heartilly isn't here and I didn't know who else I could talk to."

            "Yeah, sure.  Call me Selphie."  She replied.  Selphie always liked to help people and this girl looked like she needed help.  She sat the girl down on the elevation that kept students from falling into the water at the bottom of Garden.

            "The girl that just died, she was my best friend."  The girl was talking about Xing Lao, the fourth victim.  Her eyes glittered as a thought came to her.  "And I just wanted you to know that I'd help you out with anything.  I knew her best so maybe I could help you with the profile of the killer, or something."

            _That would save us from having to do a background check on Xing_.  Selphie thought.  "That would be very helpful."  If the girl felt like she was making herself useful, the grief wouldn't be as painful.  "So what's your name?"

            "Myena."  She replied.  "Xing had just gotten dumped by her boyfriend a week before her death and," She sniffled a little, "I don't think I was a good enough friend to her.  If you let me help, I'll feel better.  Better a friend too late than never."  Myena cried a little and Selphie comforted her, taking her own comfort from helping out another.

            It was the only way she knew how to comfort herself.

*          *            *

            That night Seifer sat in the cafeteria by himself, as he usually did.  The meal was simple but thankfully not those damn hotdogs.  How could Zell stuff himself with those hideous things day after day?  Seifer hadn't seen Zell since he had come back to Garden but thought vaguely that he'd raise a little hell when he did see the chicken-wuss again.

            Just a little though.

            "Lonely?"  Quitis' voice interrupted Seifer's thoughts as she sat herself down at his table, holding a food tray.

            "No."  Seifer said blankly.  Quistis had accepted his presence at Garden almost as quickly as Selphie had.  It was good to know that he had a couple people on his side.

            "Oh well."  She sighed melodramatically and began eating.  After a few mouthfuls she got to the point.  "I found out the names of the girls."

            _Girls?  That scumbag._  Seifer had been expecting only one.  He prompted her to continue speaking with his fork.

            "Eliza Bone, Amanda Smith, Lorile Rent and," She blushed a little.  One of the names had been very familiar but the next name banished the thought.  "Diamond G-String."  Seifer chocked on his forkful of food then.  Irvine was even cheating on Selphie with _strippers_?  Now he _really_ wanted to beat Irvine pretty face into oblivion.  He knew Diamond was a regular at the 'Golden Corset,' a high-class strip bar. 

            Not that _he'd_ know anything about strip bars.

            "Thanks."  Seifer praised when he dislodged the food from his throat.  Quistis was the only person he told, as the impending break up wasn't public knowledge.  Selphie was too heartbroken to be able to say anything to Irvine and Irvine seemed too busy to talk to her.

            "She's my friend too, isn't she?"  It was a statement rather than a question.  Quistis was just as shocked as Seifer had been when she found out but hadn't said anything to Selphie yet.  She knew Selphie would come to her in due time.  

            "Still."  Seifer finished his food then stood up.  "See ya around."  And with that he left, leaving Quistis to ponder.

*          *            *

            Selphie was currently on her third hour of television when Seifer entered their dorm.  When she wasn't working she was descending into grief.  She would have been able to understand if Irvine had just said that he wanted to see other people but he hadn't.  He just went and did it.  That hurt, that he couldn't just tell her the truth.  Hadn't she always been honest with him?

            "Hey."  For once Seifer initiated the conversation.

            Selphie turned blank eyes to him.  "Hey.  Whatcha up to?"  Even though she was overflowing with grief, she still cared about everyone else.

            "Nothing," His voice trailed off as he eyed her up for a moment.  

Selphie got goosebumps on her arms.  He saved her from any embarrassing moments by going to his room.  Selphie thought about how lonely her Friday night was, usually she would go out with friends or at least do something, _anything_.  Quistis had called her earlier and asked if she wanted to go bar hopping with her and Rinoa but she declined.  She was sure that Quistis and Rinoa didn't want a Selphie that was only half there.

A knock came at the door and Selphie felt dread grip her.  She knew who it was, and there was no way in hell she was ready for this.  She hoped, in a panic, that Seifer would open the door and surprisingly Seifer emerged from his room and did just so.  Though Selphie couldn't see who was at the door from where she was sitting, she knew because Seifer's body went rigid and his hand clenched.

"What do you want?"  She could hear Seifer say through gritted teeth.  Seifer had mercifully not said anything to anyone about Irvine, if anyone had shown pity for her she knew she would've broke.

"You seem to forget that you're living with _my_ girl."  Irvine drawled_.  One of them anyway,_ Selphie thought bitterly.

"She's busy."  Seifer growled.  Selphie felt a little flush of thankfulness for Seifer run through her.

"She's never too busy for me."  Irvine pushed past Seifer and looked at Selphie with a bunch of flowers in his hands.  She vaguely thought that she must look like hell to him.  "How are you doing cutie?"  Irvine turned on the charm, completely ignoring the fuming Seifer behind him.  He acted like nothing was wrong-

When everything was.  Selphie opened her mouth to say something but couldn't.  All she wanted to do was to yell at him, and vent her anger and feelings of betrayal as best she could.  Maybe even beat him to death with those damn flowers.  Her emotions however, had her in such a tight grip that she couldn't do anything.

"What's wrong, sweetness?"  Irvine asked.  

He _knew_ what was wrong, even if he didn't know that she knew.  "You…You…"  Selphie was so close to yelling.

"I told you, she's busy."  Seifer loomed behind Irvine, seething anger.

"I wasn't asking you."  Irvine walked over to where Selphie was sitting and offered her the flowers.  Selphie knew she couldn't hide the look of shock in her face.  She was so mad at him and there he was, flowers in hand, acting like he was the perfect boyfriend.  The betrayal hit her as hard as it could then, and Selphie retaliated-

-Flowers went flying across the room in every direction.  Selphie stood up and began to scream at Irvine.  "What's wrong?  What's wrong!?"  She nearly slapped him in her anger.  "You know what's fucking wrong."  Selphie noticed indirectly that Seifer's eyebrows flew up in surprise at her swearing.  "How could you do that to me."

Irvine feigned innocence.  "I'm sorry I haven't had much time lately…" 

Selphie cut him off, "Don't lie to me dammit!  I know about your other girlfriends!"

Irvine went white with shock and shame.  "They aren't girlfriends, just sex buddies."  He didn't mean to say that.  Selphie punched him in the face with all the pent up emotions and anger that was spiraling around her heart.  

Hard.

Irvine went flying back into Seifer's waiting arms and straight out the door, only to go tumbling ungracefully down the hallway.  Seifer slammed the door behind Irvine's gawky exit.  Selphie's eyes were pinpointed on the ground, not realizing that blood was dripping down her fingers and dropping to the floor.  She was in a killing frenzy and was thinking about following Irvine and beating the shit right out of him.  This was the first time in her life when she had gotten so utterly angry and it disgusted her a little.

But Irvine disgusted her more.  She started to make her way to the door, unaware that Seifer blocked the way.  She snapped out of her frenzy when he hefted her up on his shoulder and lugged her into his room.  He threw her on the bed and Selphie didn't know what to do.  She was trapped there, half propping herself up on her arms, glaring at Seifer.  Tempting him to do anything that would lead to a fight.

Instead he calmly picked up a small box from underneath his bed and dropped it unceremoniously beside her.  It had the little medic cross on it.

"Look at your hand."  Seifer said bluntly.  Selphie ripped her eyes from him and stared unbelievingly at her bleeding hand.  When she had punched Irvine she managed to bust her skin as well as his face.  Now the tears began.  Seifer said nothing, just opened the box and got out alcohol and bandages.  Selphie gasped when he poured the alcohol on her hand.  _Damn, that stung.  _Without a single word of reprimand, he bandaged her up.

"Thank you."  Selphie said when he finished.  She wasn't angry anymore and could understand that Seifer was only trying to help.  She was a little embarrassed about her behaviour just a few minutes ago, she never acted like that.  But Irvine…

Irvine.

"It's time for more alcohol."  Seifer helped her stand up.  Selphie cringed at the thought of having more alcohol run over her opened skin.  "Get dressed."  And he pushed her into her room.

"Oh."  _That_ kind of alcohol.

*          *            *

            A half an hour later they were in a smoke and body filled bar.  The general mood in here was of cheerfulness and celebration.  Seifer noticed that Selphie's mood had lightened a little since they entered the bar.  This was one bar where the high spirits were nearly impossible to escape.  Maybe that's why it was called "High Spirits."  That or the vicious alcohol they served.  Good, but vicious.  The crowd stirred a little when they realized the band would be on soon, a mosh pit was already starting on the dance floor.  Seifer ordered two shots of tequila with salt and lime for himself and Selphie.  He was going to make her forget about Irvine, even if it was just for the night.  

Seifer also wanted to forget about Irvine.  It took all his self-control to stop himself from finishing off Irvine when Selphie punched him.  Thing was, he figured he would have killed Irvine.  He remembered now why one of the four names Quists had given him was familiar, one was a victim.  Which put Irvine on the suspect list.  Selphie turned from watching the people when the clink of glasses hit the bar.  She went for hers but Seifer stopped her.

            "No, no."  He shook his head with good humour.  "You got to do it the right way.  First lick your hand right here," He showed her where to lick her hand.  "Then you put salt on it," he shook salt onto her hand as his, "Now you suck on your hand, take the shot, then bite the lime."  He downed his fast and waited for Selphie to do the same.  And she certainly sucked it back.

            Too bad for her she wasn't used to drinking hard stuff.  Her face contorted in a sour look when she felt the tequila burn down her throat.  Seifer chuckled and Selphie gave him a fake angry look.

            "That burns!"  She managed to cough out once she regained breathing.  "I want another."  Seifer really laughed then, this would be a good night.  He ordered another two when the band came on stage.  This was the second time Seifer had seen this band and he filled with pride.  There were five people in the band, a hard rock band called 'The Thunder Boom."  One of them was Raijin.

            "Hey, isn't that Raijin?"  Selphie asked, concentrating on the lead guitarist and singer.

            "Yeah."  Seifer leaned on the bar and took his second shot.  Selphie followed suit.  "They're pretty good."  

            "If you don't mind me asking but why did you break away from Raijin and Fujin?"  Selphie asked delicately.  Seifer realized that she wasn't trying to be rude and answered.

            "I just realized that they had better things going for them than hanging around with me."  A sardonic grin crossed his face.  "Fujin is a romance writer now, she even got married.  Her pen name is Nova France."  Selphie blushed a little.  "I take it you've read some of her novels?"

            Selphie gave an embarrassed laugh, "Yeah."  Nova France's novels were known for being, _graphic_.  "Wanna mosh?"  Selphie asked him, hope in her eyes.  He shook his head in surprise, trying to figure out if Selphie had actually asked him that.  _Selphie_ wanted to mosh?  "Please."  She whined cutely.  He couldn't possibly say no, so he grabbed her arm and brought her in the pit.

*          *            *

            After the band got off stage and the next one came on, Selphie had gotten her moshing out of her system and plenty of alcohol in.  She was now having a lot of fun and forgot her worries for the rest of the night.  They were at the bar again when Raijin advanced to Seifer.

            "What's up?!"  Raijin gave Seifer a hearty pat on the back.  "Haven't seen ya around much, ya know." 

            "Went back to Garden."  Seifer raised his voice over the crowd and the band.  Raijin looked surprised but kept his toothy smile.

            "So you got out of the old life then."  Raijin's tone became a little more somber.

            "Yeah, I'm on the good side now."  Seifer and Raijin shared a good laugh while Selphie sat mystified (and no little drunk).

            "So who's this?"  Raijin stuck out his hand in greeting to Selphie, not recognizing her.

            "Selphie, you forgot all ready?"  Selphie gripped his hand in a shake and laughed.

            "Oh geez!"  Raijin grabbed his head.  "And I always thought you were the cute one too, ya know!"  Seifer imposed his personality over Raijin and he stopped trying to come on to Selphie.  "Anyway, why don't you come back stage?  There's a great party going on back there, ya know."  Selphie was more than ready for anything at the moment and Seifer thought, with amusement that he had to keep up with her.

*          *            *

            Somewhere near six in the morning Seifer and Selphie stumbled back into Garden, holding each other up and singing drinking songs.  A few of the students that were up that early in the morning, most running laps, gave them funny looks as they passed by in a drunken stagger.  They didn't care though, nothing mattered at this point.  Only trying to reach their dorm before Squall caught them being piss-drunk in front of the students.

            When they reached the dorm Selphie hugged Seifer after he closed the door.  "Thanks for takin' me out t'night."  She slurred. 

            "No prob."  Seifer replied, just as smashed.  He was amused that she could keep up with his drinking as well as she did.  She released him and started taking off her coat.  Seifer went for his room, threw his coat off and crashed on his bed.  He was relaxing very quickly until he realized he wasn't alone.  "Selphie?"  He tensed slightly as he felt her arm slide over his and rest on his chest.

            "Who else?"  She giggled.  He turned to face her and was rewarded with a kiss.  It wasn't until then that he recognized the need for Selphie that he had.  Despite himself, he deepened the kiss and positioned himself on top of her.  He wanted her very badly right now.  The alcohol pushed his passion over the edge.  She started unbuttoning his shirt and soon it was halfway across his room.  She was just as willing as he was.

            Seifer forced himself to pull away.  "I can't do this."  He told her with _so much_ remorse.

            "I doubt that."  Selphie's hand went below the belt and Seifer flushed.

            "No really," He managed to pull back a little more.  "You're really drunk right now.  And I don't want to take advantage-" Selphie kissed him again.  He couldn't deny how much he wanted to be with her but now wasn't the right time.

            _Dammit_.

            "I have to go now, Selphie."  In an act of absolute drunken grace he managed to throw himself off of Selphie and onto the ground.  It was the only way to stop himself.  "You just go to sleep now."  That was the one good thing about drunken people; they usually listened to you.  He threw a blanket over her and she mumbled something, quickly fading into sleep.  

            Seifer got another blanket and a pillow and found himself on the coach.  Thinking to himself how stupid he was for letting the opportunity slip past him but still a little happy with himself none-the-less.

~*        *            *~

Notes: And there you have it, chapter IV.  There are actually four leads in that one depending on who you think the killer is.  I won't tell you which is the one that actually counts though, that would ruin the story.  Many thanks to all those that review!  And for Myena, I hope you're happy with your cameo, which was the only way I could put you into the story without adding in unneeded characters.  And for those of you who are waiting for more serial killer action, it's coming in the next chapter.

Don't forget to review!

Jade_ice17@hotmail.com


	5. Deeper Lies

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, any characters within or placed involved.  Original characters and places are my own.

Chapter V: Deeper Lies. 

            The next morning Seifer woke up with a hangover.  Good thing it was a Saturday, he thought as he rolled into a sitting position.  Through bloodshot eyes he noticed Selphie was still crashed in his room.  Lying there with the most serene look on her face.  She made a cute noise and shifted on her back, lips slightly parted.

            Seifer needed a cold shower.

            He staggered to the bathroom and proceeded to splash cold water on his face and carry on with the usual ablutions before jumping into the shower.  When his thoughts started to make sense, they drifted to the night before.  It had been good to see Raijin again, too bad Fujin wasn't there too.  Seifer always wondered how his comrades were and often checked up on them when he could.  After the event three months ago however…

            _Stop it_.

            He had other things to think about now.  Last night complicated things between Selphie and himself.  It was then that Seifer realized how much he had wanted her.  He ached.  Rarely did he ache.  It disturbed him, to put it simply.  Most women he could have anytime.  But Selphie…

            Selphie was his friend too.  She _trusted_ him.  If he had given in to his primal desires last night, she would probably have hated him this morning.  And for a lot longer than he cared to think about.  Seifer knew he wanted to be with Selphie but she had just gotten the heartbreak of a lifetime.  For the first time Seifer felt powerless about something in his life.  Shutting the water off, Seifer sighed to himself.

            Seifer got out of the shower and thought about the days events that were about to unfold.  Today was the day he had to track Denman and find out if he was a credible suspect.  Seifer had studied his file extensively yesterday.  He knew his usual hangouts, who his friends were, and who he was.  Denman himself had been a "rebel" since he joined Garden when he was 12.  Came from a broken family, and was abused by his father.  He hadn't so much joined Garden as was put there by the Balamb authorities.  He had average marks and excelled at hand to hand fighting.  Denman also had a disciplinary record as long as Seifer's arm.  Fighting here, assault there.  This kid was definitely violent.  

            He came out of the bathroom and was toweling off his hair when he noticed Selphie was up, looking just as hung-over as he did.  She sat at the table nursing a cup of coffee with a sour look on her face.

            "Morning."  Seifer felt a little better after the shower.

            "There's coffee made."  Selphie scratched her head leisurely, trying to avoid eye contact.  Guess she was a little surprised as to which bed she woke up in.  Seifer gave a low grunt and got a glass of water instead.

            He leaned against the sink, "You're hung over because you're dehydrated.  Water would be better for you."  The only response Selphie gave him was the finger.

*          *            *

            Once Seifer left, Selphie let out a sigh of relief.  What had she been thinking?  The events last night were just as vivid now as they were then.  She remembered everything.

            Unfortunately.  Seifer was her SeeD partner and she knew that.  It was so unprofessional to do that with your partner.  That was why she and Irvine had never worked together, because feelings could get in the way.  She just didn't do that.  Even if Seifer was gorgeous.  _STOP!  Quit thinking that Selphie!  _She had just had the worst (okay, only) breakup of her life last night and she seemed a little too willing to jump in the sack with Seifer.  It was like she was betraying Irvine.

            _Oh Hyne, Irvine_.  A new wave of hurt washed over Selphie's soul. _ I betray him?  _Selphie knew she was a good person, so what had she done to deserve what happened to her?  She always tried to cheer others up, go for the extra effort in everything.  What had she done wrong?  It somehow must have been her fault.  Maybe she didn't spend enough time with Irvine, so he had to go to another girl.  _Yeah right._

But there was also she and Seifer.  There was no denying that she was ready to sleep with Seifer last night.  He had something that Irvine never had: _dangerousness_.  That hazardous mix of alcohol, music, and Seifer had almost made her go over the edge.  How could she have done that?  She violated his trust in her.  She had been the one to take advantage of him.  She knew he was grateful for her managing to get him back into Garden.  Selphie knew that he only thought of her as a SeeD partner.  Seifer had even been trying to be a good friend to her.  He showed her kindness.

No one but herself knew that Seifer had kindness in his soul.  And it made her bleed on the inside to know she had used his kindness as a tool last night.

*          *            *

            How have you been Mother?  I've been very good.  Do you know why I feel so good right now?  I've found another girl with the Pain.  I think I'll end her Pain tonight.  No one can stop me either Mother.  They're trying but they won't succeed.  I'm too smart for them, far too smart.  And all because you taught me Mother.  Tonight I will prove that to them.  But I've had enough of hiding my girls after I've taught them.  This time I'm planning something special Mother.  She will be a monument for everyone to learn.  I can't wait; I have so much planned Mother.  So much.

*          *            *

            Just for a change of pace, Seifer ate his late lunch in the Quad.  The sun was shining merrily and the fresh air dissolved the rest of Seifer's hangover.  Over the last year he had gotten good at getting rid of hangovers.  He was planning how he would trial Denman without getting noticed, so he opted for the hair dye and clothes change technique.  Denman was going to be in the Fifth District tonight, as per usual.  It was a rough neibourhood and Seifer knew he would fit right in.  He _had_ spent a lot of time in there after all.

            Seifer went back to his dorm room to equip a few Guardian Forces and some magic, just in case things got ugly.  Selphie was gone.  He packed a small bag of clothes before he went to the garage to get a car.  When he got there, rows of cars greeted him.  Cars didn't particularly get Seifer going what he really wanted was…

            Right there.  The most beautiful motorcycle he had ever seen.  The racer was all black and gleamed at him, seducing him like no women could.  Seifer felt the leather seat with satisfaction, noting how good it felt under his hands.  Straddling it, he started the engine.  _I love how Garden leaves the keys in everything_.  The engine purred to life, rumbling deeply.  It sounded good.

            Okay, so maybe Seifer had a motorcycle fetish.  Nothing wrong with that.

*          *            *

            The girl started crying again.  It was really hard to get information when she kept crying, Selphie thought.  Myena was really shaken up by her best friend's murder.  Selphie had only managed to get Xing's past out of Myena so far.  Xing had been an orphan and entered garden fairly early in life.  She had lived with a nice family in Balamb before entering Garden and had still kept in touch with them ever since.  She was only a year away from her SeeD test, and from what Myena had told her so far, she would have been accepted for sure.  Xing was on the Headmaster's List for high marks and good attitude.

            "Please Myena, tell me more about Xing."  Selphie prompted.  Myena took a few shuddering breaths ands stopped crying, a look of deep concentration on her face.

            "Yes."  She looked quite intense to Selphie right now.  "She had never been incredibly popular but she did have close friends.  Not too many people noticed when she disappeared.  Her boyfriend- ex boyfriend- Mikhial asked me where she was that night but I didn't know."  She took another deep breath, "We had a little fight earlier in the day over him.  I had my suspicions that he was cheating on her but she wouldn't believe me."

            Selphie twitched.

            "Was she religious or involved in any groups."

            "She was religious."  Myena smiled faintly.  "That's how we met, we would go to the same services on Tuesday.  We are -were- both Hyne followers.  But what does that have to do with anything?"

            "Every bit helps."  Selphie said.  "Can you tell me anything else about her?"

            "She liked animals, especially Moombas.  She liked to go swimming, do her hair, and go to the movies."  Myena began to withdraw.  "I think that's about everything I know."

            Selphie stood up from the desk and shook Myena's hand.  "You've helped a lot.  Thank you for your information."

            Myena pulled Selphie into a hug.  Her body was shuddering with tears.  "Make sure you bring him to punishment.  Please."  Myena whispered in Selphie's ear through tears.

            _I will_, she thought.

*          *            *

            Seifer had just finished dying his hair jet-black.  He looked up from the sink of the motel room that he used to transform into his cover.  He actually kinda liked it; too bad it would wash out in a couple of rinses.  It was nearly ten o'clock and Denman would be out soon.  Turning from the sink, he walked over to the bed and put on the clothes.

            Seifer admired himself in the full-length mirror.  Seifer looked badass before, now he was _the_ badass.  Seifer had been feeling in a black leather mood today.  The outfit started off with black leather boots, with just the right amount of buckles on them.  The weight made them perfect for street-fighting as well.  Black leather pants complimented the black mesh shirt that fit Seifer like a tattoo.  Instead of his regular trench coat, he choose yet more black leather with buckles on the arms.  A sexy black collar ringed his neck and gave him the air of danger.  He smiled as he fit his silver shades on his face and closed the door behind him.

            Once he was back on the motorcycle he savoured the rush of air that whipped through his newly made ebony hair.  It had been a while since he last enjoyed a rowdy ride through a city.  Streetlamps flashed by and sounds were nothing but a mere blur.  It was intoxicating.  Racing on a motorcycle was the only time that Seifer felt truly free, as if he had been released from all his burdens.  Perhaps it was because as he made every turn, he touched death a little.  One wrong move and he'd be taking Lady Death as his next lover.

            The lights of the "Rusty Tankard," the bar that Denman frequented came into view and Seifer eased the motorcycle to a stop not far from the exit.  The feeling of exhilaration lingered in his body even as he entered the bar.  The music was dark heavy metal and summed up the mood.  A rough bunch sat at tables and the bar that Seifer himself sat at.  Seifer fit right in.

            Denman was already here.  He sat at a table with two other people, both male.  They looked like they were having a good time telling stories to each other.  Seifer could tell that Denman was well on his way to being drunk.  Seifer ordered a beer that ended up tasting like donkey piss and continued to covertly watch Denman from his seat at the bar.

*          *            *

            Three hours later, nothing much had happened.  Another man had come to the table about an hour ago and Denman had gotten in a fight twenty minutes ago, coming out the victor.  Seifer had to hand it to him; he could fight as Seifer had watched the 170-pound kid take out a 250-pound biker.  His friends were toasting his victory when two more men and a woman came up to the table.  The first man looked all business, in a bad-lands kind of way.  The second man was obviously his bodyguard and carried a small black bag with him.  The woman was a classy looking hooker.  The three men that had been with Denman left with a wave of his hand, all three had frightened looks on their faces.

            The businessman shook Denman's hand and sat down, the woman made herself _very_ comfortable next to Denman.  They began a conversation and Seifer strained to listen in.

            "So you have the money?"  The businessman said.

            "Yeah, you got the stuff?"  Denman nodded his head.

            "You think the Boss would come here if he didn't have it?"  The bodyguard said insulted but was put at bay with a raised hand by the businessman.

            "Easy."  With that small exchange the businessman imposed the authority he had.  "You have the whole 15 000 gil here?"  Denman nodded his head in assurance.

            _15 000 gil?  That's an awful lot of money for such a little bag.  _Seifer thought.  _Denman must be a drug trafficker.   And unless all those girls didn't pay up, I don't think he's the one we're looking for.  Shit._  Seifer watched as Denman pulled a small black money bag out of his jacket and handed it to the bodyguard that looked inside and nodded to the businessman.

            "Good doing business with you.  My associate will take of you tonight."  With that the businessman and the bodyguard left the bar, the hooker, and the bag.  Denman took a long drink form his beer and started playing cute with the hooker.

            After a short time she said, "Wanna go some place private?"

*          *            *

            Seifer found himself in a shady little motel where Denman and the hooker went.  He had managed to overhear the room number and had gotten the room beside them.  

            Apparently Denman liked to be disciplined.

            Seifer would have gone back to Garden but he couldn't leave the hooker with Denman alone, just in case.  They had been going at it for over an hour now and Seifer was attempting to drown out the sounds by staring out the window of his room, absently looking at the houses across from the motel.  He decided he would have Denman arrested for trafficking once he got back into Garden.  There had been a rumour going around that someone was selling Chocobo Dust in Garden lately.  Chocobo Dust was a cheaply made drug that was injected via needle.  Seifer had seen what an overdose could do to people and it sickened him.  Seifer knew that Denman was too arrogant to figure out that he had been caught and was sure that he'd be back at Garden the next day.

            Funny how that happened sometimes; you look for one thing and get another.  A man with a cigarette walked down the street and Seifer focused in on him, mostly out of boredom.  When he recognized the face however he wasn't bored at all.

            It was Officer Damian Leon in the flesh.  _What the hell is he doing here?  _Leon knocked on the door of one of the houses nearly across from where Seifer was.  The noise stopped in the room next door and Seifer could here that they were getting ready to leave.  Leon knocked again.  The door next door opened and he heard Denman leave alone.

            _Fuck_.  Seifer wasn't sure if he should follow Denman to ensure that he made it back to Garden or find out what Leon was doing at the house.  He decided to watch Leon when an old woman opened the door, a look of anger crossed her face when she saw Leon.  The street noise made it impossible to hear what they were talking about however.  The more Leon talked, the more the old woman became angry.  Finally after a few minutes the women became so enraged that she raised her voice loud enough for Seifer to hear.

            "How dare you say that after what happened to Samantha!"  The old woman slapped Leon across the face hard.  

Samantha… 

"That was all your fault!"  She finished by slamming the door on his face.  Leon leaned on the door for a minute, Seifer thought it looked like he was trying to compose himself then left the same way he came from.

            Realization hit Seifer when he belatedly recognized the girl's name.  The first victim had been named Samantha.  _So what the fuck does she have to do with Leon?_

*          *            *

            The ride back to Garden was uneventful.  Seifer ravaged his mind thinking of ways that Leon could be connected to the victim.  _What is _he's_ the killer?_  A little part in Seifer's mind asked.  He parked the motorcycle in the parking lot, mind whirling in thought.  His mind was working so hard that he didn't notice the water spill until he nearly slipped on his ass.  _What the?_  He looked down and fear struck him.

            It was blood.  "All Must Learn."  Was smeared on the floor in blood.  Seifer had stepped right on it too.  A dripping noise caught his attention and he caught movement nearby.  His eyes slowly raised and what he saw horrified him.  Fear made his chest clench and his heart beat erratically.  

Once he could breath, he puked…

~*        *            *~

Notes:  Sorry about the long wait, but I got a bad case of exams and sickness.  Coughing up blood kinda takes away my ambition to write.  I hope everyone will forgive me for posting this so late anyway.  I'm just glad it got done, things are really starting to spice up!  Remember to review!  It makes the chapters come faster (assuming I don't get deathly ill again).

Don't be afraid to email me at:

Jade_ice17@hotmail.com


	6. Down Moral, Up Adrenaline

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, any characters within or placed involved.  Original characters and places are my own.

**Chapter VI: Down Moral, Up Adrenaline**

****

            Seifer wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, the bitter taste lingering.  His mind couldn't- _wouldn't_ accept the sight before him.  A brutal mockery of one of Hyne's followers assaulted his vision, sending his mind plummeting into darkness.  Blood dripped down the body, tracing the pale contours only to plummet to the ground and darkly resonate into Seifer's heart.  Each deathly drop tearing a wound into his own psyche.  Thin black rope wound its way around the girl's mutilated corpse, forcing her body into a cruel semblance of a cross.  The dead wells of her eyes stared down her own mutilated chest, head hanging limply.  The most horrifying vision was the perfectly carved cross that lay spread over her chest.  This horrific sight would come to haunt Seifer for years to come.  

All this, sickeningly, was displayed hanging from the very walls of Garden.  The ropes were taut with the weight of the corpse, attached with due effort from the overhanging beams.  Each rope tore a new ravine into the already molested corpse.

Seifer felt very weak at the knees.  He couldn't comprehend the evil mind that thought this up.  Seifer felt hatred, pure unadulterated hatred for the _beast that had caused this carnage begin to twist its way around his soul.  Dark demons of insanity wavered on the edge of Seifer's mind as he stared at the lifeless corpse.  But it wasn't just a corpse anymore it was a _girl_.  A girl with friends, goals, a family, hopes.  A girl with dreams.  Her life had been ripped from her mercilessly.  Her life had been over before she even had a chance to live it. _

It wasn't fair.

*          *          *

            The harsh ringing of his phone abruptly woke Squall.  He groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore the insistent ringing.  _Who would phone this late?  What kind of emergency could possibly be so…_  Squall's blood suddenly ran cold, like ocean water rushing over an unsuspecting victim.  Squall's sleep-numbed hand fumbled with the phone before he could actually pick it up.  He raised the phone to his ear and gave a painful swallow.

            "Headmaster Squall."

            "It's Seifer," Seifer's voice sounded erratic even to Squall.  Seifer's voice was too low for anything to be okay.  "You gotta get down here.  Now."

            "Where?"

            "Lobby."  Was he imagining it or did Seifer nearly lose control of his voice?  

            "Oh Hyne."  Squall cursed.

"Be quiet about it, call the cops in, do a lock down of the students."

            "Shouldn't I be giving the orders?"  

            "Shut the fuck up and do what I say."  Dead silence.

            Squall hung up the phone and gingerly shook Rinoa awake.  She turned over to look at him, but she wasn't mad.  She had an angelic smile on her face, eyes half closed with sleep.  The sheets strained against her body as she moved.  She looked so safe, warm comfortable, happy.  A pang of fear raced through Squall's heart.

            Her eyes danced over the look on Squall's face.  "What's the matter?"  Squall couldn't take it; he leaned over and took Rinoa into his arms.  He held her tightly, gently rocking back and forth, reassuring himself that Rinoa was there. Alive.

*          *          *

            Twenty minutes later, the scene was crawling with cops and Garden staff.  Seifer surveyed the police scurrying this way and that, trying to look at anything but the mangled corpse in front of him.  Selphie hadn't shown up yet, she had gone to get Leon, and luckily for her through the back door.  They hadn't been able to reach Officer Leon through to phone.

            The flash of a camera and the sickening splash of puke distracted Seifer.  The police crime scene photographer wiped the back of his mouth and gave a half-hearted grin to Seifer.  "This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my life."  He gave a quick glance at the girl.  "Who could have done this?"

            "That's what we're trying to figure out."  Seifer said grimly.

            "I saw something like this before."  The cameraman rubbed his forehead.

            Seifer snapped his head up and gave a surprised look to him.  "Tell me about it."  He hesitated for a second, "Please."

            "Young girl, maybe 16," The cameraman, Larry by his nametag swallowed hard.  "We found her just outside Deling City limits a couple years ago.  She was beaten and cut up.  Some sick fuck had carved a cross into her forehead.  The morgue said she had been tortured for about a week before she died."  Something in Seifer's memory stirred.  "Turns out it was some rogue sect of Hyne's church, Silent Saints.  Their rationale was that she had sinned, in reality she had been sexually active with her boyfriend.  They found out and killed her, slowly.  They managed to prosecute two of them.  They were a twisted couple.  Believed they were doing Hyne's work on earth.  Killed themselves in jail, leaving a note that they would become martyrs for their cause."

            Seifer let that sink in for a second, "Thanks."  Seifer shook Larry's hand and let him get back to work.  As soon as Selphie showed up, they'd be able to follow the new lead.

            The familiar chime of Selphie's voice alerted Seifer to her presence.  _Right on time.  Something rushed under Seifer's skin making him stand stiff.  It grew more intense as Selphie neared.  With a jolt of shock Seifer realized it was the need to protect Selphie from this.  Barricades had been put around the area so that if any students managed to get out they wouldn't be able to see the scene.  As Selphie came around the barricade Seifer stepped in front of her, blocking the view._

            "You don't want to see this."

            Selphie looked at him questionably then spoke, "You know I have to see it Seifer."

            "No you don't, you can see the pictures afterwards."  Seifer let an ounce of plead creep into his voice.

            This time anger seeped into Selphie's eyes.  "This is my job Seifer, don't get in my way."  Selphie tried to look to the side of Seifer but he grabbed her by the back of the neck.  Selphie began to take breath to yell until Seifer pressed her into his shoulder.  She tensed.

            "Selphie…"  Seifer breathed lightly into her hair, the word more a prayer than anything else.  "I don't want you to see this."  His other arm wrapped around her back, as if just holding her could keep her safe.

            "Seifer, you know I have to.  Please, don't protect me from the life I've chosen."  She became very still standing in front of Seifer.  "Please."  Seifer momentarily brought her a closer to him then eased up a bit.  Again Selphie looked past the side of Seifer, this time her eyes growing large in horror.  Seifer knew he had a pained look across his face as he watched Selphie's eyes quiver with unshed tears.  Her lips parted and she gave a sharp intake of breath.  Seifer felt her whole body tense then begin to shake slightly.  Seifer held her tightly, loosing himself in her.  _Oh Hyne, let me have done the right thing._

            Selphie's voice broke through Seifer's thoughts.  "Thank you."  She stepped back and looked him in the eyes, her gaze lingering.  "Let's get this over with."  To Seifer's amazement, Selphie didn't cry.

            Even Seifer felt like crying right now.  "Yeah."

            "Fuck."  It was Leon's time to enter the scene and break the silence.  A shaky hand lit the cigarette that was all but dangling out of his mouth.  He took a long drag of it, the light from the ember making shadows swim in his eyes.  As he exhaled Seifer thought the wisps of smoke were strangely fitting against Leon's face.  

            "Why do you smoke?"  Seifer asked.

            "It's something I can rely on."  Leon answered.

            "Rely on?"

            "A pack of cigarettes will never let you down."  Dark humour flowed in his words.  His words however spoke of past pain.

            "So where were you?"  Seifer asked Leon once Selphie was out of ear shot, presumably going to talk to the uniforms.  

            "Away."  Seifer watched as the humour leaked from Leon and his body tensed from the question.  

            "And your destination was where, Leon?"  

            "None of your damn business, Almasy."  Anger surged through Leon's eyes.  Seifer made an accusatory noise.  "What the fuck is this, twenty questions?"

            "Why you so defensive?"  Seifer couldn't quite shake the feeling that Leon was hiding something.

"I was doing something personal, alright."  Leon stood directly in front of Seifer in a challenging pose.  "Stay the fuck out of my business Almasy or I'll hurt you.  Badly."

Seifer could feel his anger welling up inside of him creating a near electric charge in the air between himself and Leon.  "You ever threaten me again and I will _end_ you."  Seifer took a step closer to Leon, ready for a fight.  Bare knuckles, no rules fight.  

And he was going to like it.

"Cut it out you two."  Selphie stepped between them, facing Seifer.  "There will be no fighting."  Her gaze cut into Seifer's anger, though still leaving him smouldering.  "We have work to do."  A uniform called to her and she went in his direction, leaving an angry glance behind her.

The air was as thick with anger as it was death.

*          *          *

            Selphie sunk into a chair by the table sighing deeply.  What she had seen tonight had disturbed her deeply.  Disturbed was too light a word.  This event demeaned her very faith in the human race.  She felt numb from the scene that had burned itself into her memory.  This was the fifth victim and they weren't any closer to solving the case.  Seifer had told her about the lead on the Silent Saints but something deep within Selphie told her that wouldn't be the break in the case.  

            The coffee pot chimed to tell Selphie it was done, bringing her out of her morbid thoughts.  Nothing helped soothe the soul like coffee.  A year ago she wouldn't have touched the stuff, but now…

            Now she practically lived off it.  As she sipped her coffee she began to think.  She had changed a lot in the past year.  Her life had been going so well, five months ago she got a promotion.  Her career in SeeD looked so bright every night she could barely wait for what the next day would bring.  Now she was second guessing herself.  This case had brought out the absolute worst this job had to offer.

            And they weren't getting anywhere.

            Five girls were dead and they had almost nothing to go on.  The murderer never left anything behind.  Nothing but broken lives and shattered dreams.  _Maybe someone else would be better for the job.  She thought with no small amount of frustration.  At the beginning she had felt like she could take on this case, that the first girl found in Garden would be the last.  But she wasn't.  Guilt rode Selphie hard as she thought that if they could have caught him earlier the others would still be alive.  _

            Selphie absentmindedly tugged on her earring.  Her earring.  _That's it!  The earrings!  Why hadn't she thought of this sooner?  That was the break in the case.  The murderer may not have left anything at the scene but he took things away from it.  If she could convince Squall to let her do a room to room check of the dormitories she'd be able to find the missing earrings.  And with them the murderer._

            Excited, she grabbed the phone off the wall and called Squall.  He picked up on the second ring.

            "Headmaster Squall."  His voice was dark with foreboding.

            "Squall, its Selphie."  She took a deep breath and clamed herself.  "I think I have an idea."

            "Thank Hyne."

            "Listen, I need clearance to do a dormitory check on all of Garden."  Selphie was nearly prancing in place now.

            "Do you know what you're asking?"  Squall's voice turned up a notch.  "Doing that would be a gross abuse of authority.  The students might rebel!"

            "I know, it has never been done before but just listen.  We both know the murderer never left anything at the scene right?"  She waited for him to grunt assent.  "But he did take one thing from it: the girls' earrings!"  She heard Squall intake breath quickly in surprise.  "If we could find the earrings in someone's dorm then we'd find the killer!"

            "My god Selphie, you're right.  I'll get right on it."  Before Selphie could thank him profusely he added, "But I can't promise to get it for you by tomorrow.  This is going to take some political manoeuvring.   There _are some students her with very rich and very powerful Daddies that don't want little secrets out."_

            "Thank you, I know you'll try your best Squall."  Selphie let a light laugh escape from her lips, "You always were the charmer."

            Even Squall had to laugh a little at that.  "Alright Selphie, I'll do what I can.  Bye."

            "Bye."  Selphie hung up the phone, excitement coursing through her.  Maybe she would see this case to the end.

            Hopefully it would be soon.

            A knock at the door surprised her.  _It must be Seifer.  She opened the door, eager to tell him about her plan then stopped dead._

            It was Irvine.

            "What do you want?"  Selphie voice was perhaps a little too loud.

            "Well, I've been thinking."

            "What a surprise, I was beginning to doubt that you did that at all."  This burst from Selphie brought a few students' heads poking out doors.  She didn't care, Irvine was about to make an ass of himself anyway.

            "Well I was and-" Irvine swallowed visibly, "I think maybe we should go on a break for a while."

            Selphie hand gripped the doorknob so hard she thought it would smash.  "A break."  Her voice felt very cold and distant to her.  "A _break?_"  A low, dark laugh came up from her throat that held no humour.  "You want a break?"

            "I think it would be best."  He replied rationally.

            "Yeah, it would."  And for the second time in as many days, Selphie's fist went flying into Irvine's face.

*          *          *

            Seifer was one of the last to leave the scene.  His anger had barely decreased in all that time.  A certain Officer was hiding something from him.  _On a case like this you can't hide anything._  He thought angrily.  Leon hadn't given him any real reason just why he hadn't been reachable tonight and that put Leon on the suspect list.

            That and the connection to the first victim.  _If_ he could find out what it meant.  He thought vaguely about kicking Leon off the case but decided that keeping him close was the better plan.  _Keep you friends close…_

            A loud disruptive noise finished any thought that was running through Seifer's head.  It was a shocked yelp.  And it was coming from the direction of Selphie and his dorm.  eHHhfujafhabhjuHgbjvbhmhbjmHe took off at a run.  Fear for Selphie lanced through him.  _Let her be okay.  When he came around the corner and realized that she was just fine._

            "How dare you come here and ask for a break!"  Selphie had Irvine pinned to the floor with her own body shaking him by his collar.  "You didn't get the hint the first time I kicked you out!  We're over Irvine and that's final!"  

            Seifer nearly laughed at the scene: Selphie busting out the shit on Irvine with an entire hallway of students watching.  Irvine's face was a bloody mess, looks like little ol' Selphie broke his nose.  Seifer closed the distance and picked Selphie up by her waist.

            "What the-" She turned fiery eyes to Seifer.  Once she recognized him though, her face softened.  Once she realized what he did she blushed.  "Ah, sorry you had to see that."

            "It's okay."  Seifer couldn't wipe the grin off his face.  "It was worth it."  He let Selphie down on her own feet.

            "Don't touch my girl."  Irvine drawled as he stood up.  He took in Seifer with condescending eyes.  "You gigalo." 

            "Don't start with me cowboy."  Seifer's back was rigid with new anger.  "And I suggest you stay away from Selphie, she isn't yours."

            "Don't tell me what is mine and what isn't."  Irvine threw a punch at Seifer.  His fist landed on Seifer's left cheek with a crunch.  Seifer saw stars for a second then returned Irvine's punch with one of his own.  It landed solid on Irvine's non-bruised eye.  He recoiled a second in pain then lunged at Seifer, taking him to the ground.  The two went rolling across the hallway unceremoniously.

            Fists flew as they went tumbling, some landing, some not.  Elbows and knees were everywhere, mostly in sides or stomachs.  Blood spilt and ragged screams were drawn.

            Seifer was having fun.

            Suddenly Irvine stopped the momentum and pinned Seifer to the floor.  Irvine got in two shots to the face before Seifer gave him a right hook.  Seifer could barely see Irvine; he guessed it was blood in his eyes.  Irvine leaned back, ready to give a good pounding to Seifer's face when he realized that Seifer's feet were on his chest.

            He had about one second to look surprised.

            Then Irvine was launched into the air to come crashing into the wall.  Seifer could tell, even through his blood-marred vision, that Irvine's breath had been chased out of him.  His eyes were wide and he rebounded and fell to the floor in a heap.  

Seifer sat up and leaned on his left arm while bringing his knee up and his right arm on top of it.  He panted for a minute then looked at Selphie.  She crossed her arms and huffed at him.  She looked mad but Seifer could see the gleam of amusement in her eyes.

Just then another SeeD came around the corner, probably brought by the noise.  "Oh Hyne."  He rested his head on his hand.  "It was my day off too.  Alright everybody back into your rooms."  The students hesitated.  "Now!"  They fled.  "And you two…"

Seifer grinned.

The Seed shook his head and walked over to Irvine, who still lay on the floor.  He shook Irvine and when he didn't move he checked for a pulse.  "He's completely unconscious."

Selphie found her voice.  "Take him to the infirmary.  He'll wake up soon enough."  The SeeD gave her a look.  "That's an order."  His face became solemn and he nodded his head, he then proceeded to drag Irvine to the infirmary.

Once he was out of earshot Selphie spoke to Seifer.  "Well, get in here.  I'll need to patch you up."  Seifer did as he was told.

And he still couldn't get the grin off his face.

*          *          *

Dear Mother.  I've found another girl today Mother.  She has the Pain, she must.  The poor thing can't even believe it Mother.  She is hurt so much that she can't even help it.  But I will help her, I will teach her Mother.  I think perhaps that she will be my biggest lesson of all.  Her Pain is so deep.  I hurt for her. I want to help her Mother.  I will take all the lessons you've taught me and teach her.  Oh I can barely wait!  I'm so excited Mother. She will be my masterpiece.  

Selphie will be my symphony.

~*        *          *~

Note: And there we have it.  Finally.  Again I ask for forgiveness for the lateness of this chapter but I had a very close family member pass away.  It left me with a deep sense of loss.

Please don't forget to review.

jade_ice17@hotmail.com


	7. Unexpected Disaster

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, any characters within or placed involved.  Original characters and places are my own.

**Chapter VII: Unexpected Disaster**

****

            Seifer winced and tried to pull his head away from Selphie but was stopped when the medical thread ran out.  It was currently attached to his eyebrow.

            "Stop that or you'll pull the stitches out."  Selphie chided.  She turned him to face her again, a look of delicate concentration on her face.  Sometime during the fight Seifer had received a cut that ran straight down the right side of his forehead to intersect with his eyebrow.

            "Yes Ma'am."  Seifer teased.  She gave him a frown but her eyes twinkled with humour.  There was silence for a time as Selphie continued her meticulous efforts on Seifer's gash.

            As the adrenaline slowly ran out of Seifer's system he realized how tired he was.  He began to feel the many bruises he knew would show up tomorrow morning.  His muscles were sore, not just from the fight but from the frustration of the case.

            Now that the fight was over, reality began to sink in.  The night had been hard on him both mentally and physically.  Part of his mind wasn't letting him review the gory scene of a few hours ago.  _Hurray for natural defence,_ he thought bitterly.  It was at that point that he realized that maybe he couldn't think clearly because he was so tired.  It didn't happen often but Seifer _was_ perhaps too tired to think.

            "Thank you for earlier."  Selphie's voice was a mere whisper.  She moved back from him, now done with the stitching.  "I guess I kind of lost control.  It's just that he was being such a jerk and…"  She stilled as Seifer took her hand.

            "Don't worry about it.  I've been itching for an excuse to go a few rounds with him."  The blonde smiled wearily.

            "You're such a hothead."  The forever rambunctious girl- _woman_ Seifer reminded himself- punched him lightly on the shoulder.

            Seifer let out a surprised sound.

            "Hmmn."  Selphie pulled back the mesh shirt, inspecting the offending wound.  "Look at that bruise.  And I thought you were a better fighter."  She laughed, a sound reminiscent of small bells chiming on a sweet summer's night.  That's when the full force of Selphie hit Seifer.  There she sat, perfect in every way.  She was kind, compassionate, and emanated the absolute joy in life.

            Seifer sat back with a grin of pleasure as she began to rub salve onto his wound.

*          *          *

            "Yes, that's right."  Squall mumbled tiredly over the phone.  He had been up since 5:30 making phone calls and pulling strings.  And all to make sure that political toes were not stepped on beyond repair.  It wasn't just the orphans that went to Garden, no, everyone who wanted to go would be accepted.  That meant that kids with rich and powerful Daddies came too.  Most of the time they were spoiled and were used to getting everything their way.  It was usually beaten (though not literally) out of them during training.  Scrubbing toilets alongside everyone else tended to bring down inflated egos.  But, as always, there were the few that fought it until the bitter end.

            "All right, bye."  Squall hung the phone up and heaved a sigh of relief.  It seems that even the most rigid of parents didn't mind having their kids' stuff sifted through if it meant being cleared of any connection to a serial murder case.  In fact, it went a lot smoother than he thought it would.  _But who am I to complain?  He went over, poured and mixed himself a coffee when a knock came at the door._

            "Enter."  Two female students came in.  Squall vaguely recalled their faces, something about festivals.  They saluted in unison and remained at attention.  "At ease.  So what brings you here?"

            "Well Sir," began the brunette, "Lydia and I have been very troubled by the recent events and we have been noticing that the students are highly nervous."  She continued when Squall nodded.  "Well, as you well know, we're on the executive committee of the Garden Festival Committee.  As you may also know, SeeD Tilmitt had an… altercation with another SeeD last night.  We were thinking that we could have a small scale festival next Saturday to raise the morale of the students, and of course to bring up Selphie's spirits."  The second girl nudged her with her elbow.  "I mean SeeD Tilmit's spirits."

            Squall immediately opened his mouth to say no but closed it again right away.  His first thought was that it was too risky, too many students out in the open.  But maybe, just maybe, that's what it would take to flush out the killer.  They had been getting no where by just analyzing the crime and tailing probable suspects.  This opportunity would be too great for the killer to pass up.  Squall could see to it that certain precautions were met to insure vigilance in all parts of Garden.  

            All the while the students wouldn't know.  Hopefully, the killer wouldn't either.  "Permission granted."  The girls gave each other a high five.  "Now return to your duties, I expect you'll be busy."  With an exuberant salute, the girls left.

            _Wait a minute, altercation?  Squall had been so busy scheming that the Selphie incident slipped past his radar.  _What kind of altercation?_  Just then, he walked in the door, or so he assumed._

            "Seifer, don't you knock anymore?"  Squall said dryly.  "And what the hell happened to you anyway?"  

            "Don't start with me, I have more important things to do than bicker with you.  And I got in a little scuffle."  He helped himself to the seat in front of Squall's desk and promptly put his feet on it as Squall gave a sarcastic grunt.  "Found something out last night."  

Squall's heart skipped a beat, and not just because Seifer put his feet on his desk.  _This better be good, _he fumed in his head.

"Arrest Denman.  I heavily suspect he's been trafficking Chocobo Dust in Garden, or at least he has it here."  Squall's former rival leaned back casually.

"What makes you think so?"

"He bought a package the size of your coffee cup for 15 000 gil last night."

"And how would you know the size and price of such things."

"None of your business."  Seifer's eyes narrowed dangerously as his gaze cut into Squall.  He rose from his seat and made towards the door before the other man stopped him.

"There's going to be a trap set for the killer on Saturday."  The blonde turned and gave him a dubious look.  "Garden Festival Committee is throwing a party and I figure we'd set the trap then."  

"Hunting people."  Seifer gave a humourless chuckle.  Squall didn't even hear the whisper of "again" as he left.

*          *          *

            Selphie sat in the evidence room and looked over the same documents for seemed like the hundredth time.  It didn't matter how many times she had read everything, there was still the one piece of evidence that was missing.  There was always one piece missing.  Just when they thought they had a break in the case, it would only end up complicating matters.  The one thing they had failed to notice that would bring this case to an end dangled antagonizingly out of reach.  _Oh Hyne, why can't we find it!  Selphie had never failed before and this was a serious blow to her.  _

            Before she could sink deeper into self-recrimination the phone rang.  "Hello, Selphie Tilmitt."

            "Miss Tilmitt, this is the Deling City coroner's office."  Her heart beat a little faster.  "This call is regarding the autopsies of the… victims."

            "Yes, did you find anything?"  She heard the desperation leak into her voice.

            "Yes we did Ma'am.  It's that," the voice over the phone swallowed loudly.  "the girls weren't raped."

            "What?"  Selphie's mind couldn't comprehend this one small fact.  She had seen the photos, she'd seen the bodies.  _How could they have not been raped?_

            "It's that it was really more of a mutilation.  We found fingernail scratches."

            Selphie held the phone, not saying anything for so long the voice called her name.  "I'm here, thank you.  Anything else?"

            "No that's it.  Just, just make sure you catch this bastard."  

            "We will.  I'll follow him into hell if I have to."

*          *          *

            Half an hour later both Selphie and Seifer were outside Denman's dorm with two uniformed police officers and Officer Leon in tow.  They had been trying to peacefully get Denman to open the door for five minutes.  It started with the offender just trying to ignore his uninvited guests but it had quickly escalated to a shouting match.  The students of Garden were certainly getting their fill of entertainment for the weekend.  Seifer banged on the door again.

            "Open the door!"

            "Fuck off!"

            The vein in Seifer's head pulsed.  "Open the door now or I'll break the fucking thing in!"

            "Just try it you cunt!"

            Seifer snapped, and so did the door.  Everybody rushed into the door only to be greeted by a handgun toting Denman.  There was a communal stop.

            "Not so big now, eh fuckers."  The young offender taunted.  "Kneel on the floor."  He motioned with the handgun.  "Now!  Hands behind your heads."

            Seifer and the others slowly got to their knees; he never broke eye contact with Denman.  Leon was to his right, and Selphie to his left.  This had possibilities.

The ex-sorceresses knight resisted putting his hands behind his head.  This only enraged Denman tenfold and he crossed the distance between himself and the resistant member of the unexpected group.  Exactly as planned. 

            The butt of the gun came crashing down on the side of Seifer's face and as his stitches broke, blood spattered.  _Panicked people are so easy to manipulate, he thought when his head cleared.  The barrel of the gun pressed against his forehead shakily._

            "I'll kill you."  Denman's eyes projected hatred and no small amount of panic.

            "Pull the trigger."  Seifer growled.  "If you don't pull the trigger I'm going to hunt _you_ down and kill you slowly."  His opponent's eyes clouded with hesitation and that was all it took.

            Leon sprang from his kneeling position and chaos erupted.  The gun went off wildly shooting three times before flying across the room to crash into the opposite wall.  People screamed and bodies writhed in pain.  A maelstrom of noise and action filled the room in a split second.  Seifer watched as Officer Leon smashed Denman's face into the floor several times before pulling his arms behind him to put the handcuffs on.  The sickening wet snap that came from one of those arms told everybody in the room that bones had been broken.  

            Seifer's hand came in contact with warm blood, and looking over, he realized it was Selphie's.  She was holding her left arm with a shocked expression on her face.  A thick trial of blood wound it's was down her body to pool at her feet.  Blood spurted around her fingers before she took them away and stared at them, her eyes not believing what they saw.

            "Shit."  He quickly applied pressure to her open wound, remotely hearing Leon scream something about his sister to Denman, all the while bashing the fool's face into the floor.  He surveyed the damage: another officer was shot in the thigh but was being attended to by the remaining officer.  Within seconds four students and a SeeD flooded in the door dividing in half to administer first aid.

            The SeeD pushed Seifer away from Selphie as he began the treatment.  The wet thunking of Denman's face to the ground made Seifer turn.  Leon wasn't stopping with the face pounding, even though the offender was unconscious and bleeding heavily.  He wrenched the out of control officer off the mutilated youth and swung him around.

            "Enough!"  He shook Leon to bring him out of the killing mode.

            "My sister!  I'll kill him!"  Leon wasn't even making sense so Seifer backhanded him across the face.  Suddenly Leon went dead still.  "Fuck."  He gulped in air.  "You can let me go now."  As rational thought slipped back into his eyes, they widened.  "Fuck."

Seifer let him go and knelt beside Selphie, worry finally overriding instinct.  Her eyes were glossed over, even as the SeeD finished the patch job.  He tenderly touched the side of her face, and her eyes darted to his and took a second to recognize him.  When she did, she collapsed into Seifer's arms.

*          *          *

            When Selphie finally swam through the darkness into consciousness, she found she was in the infirmary.  The familiar scent of antibacterial scrub assaulted her nose as she regained her senses.  Her eyes strained to focus on a blonde figure beside her.

            Seifer.

            "Glad you're awake."  The smile he gave faded the worry out of his eyes.  She felt his hand wrap around her own.

            "Why am I here?"  It was taking a lot of effort to speak.

            "You got shot."

            Selphie pulled up pain riddled memories.  The gun at Seifer's head, her own fear, a flash of mass, the piercing sensation, screaming (was it her own), chaos.  She _had been shot.  The blood was still seeping through the bandages on her upper left arm.  A small confused noise came from her throat._

            "Denman!"  Selphie tried to sit up but Seifer held her down softly.  "What happened?"

            "You lost a lot of blood.  The bastard made a lucky shot into the main artery in your arm.  After that you went into shock and subsequently passed out from blood loss.  Don't worry, Denman is in custody."  A grin that had nothing to do with humour and everything to do with vengeance crossed his face.  "After that little incident and the kilo of Chocobo Dust found in his room, he's looking at the death penalty."

            "He's just lucky you didn't dish it out."  Squall walked into the room and smiled at Selphie.  She noticed an unsaid warning passing between Seifer and Squall.  "Once you got carted out of the room Seifer nearly killed Denman.  It took four people to restrain him."  

            Seifer didn't even have the decency to blush.  "It's not like I was the first one to try."  The other man shrugged.

            "When can I get out of here?"

            "Once you drink this."  She was handed a cup of coloured liquid and eyed it suspiciously.  "It's the stuff they give you when you donate blood."  Conceding defeat she drank it in one gulp.  Slowly she sat up and swung her legs over the bedside.

            "When you have an extra minute make a report and send it up to my office."  With that Squall walked towards the door, turning to them over his shoulder.  "I'm glad you're going to be all right."  He then promptly fled from the room, masterly avoiding any touching moments.

            "We best be off too."  Selphie tried to stand up but her knees buckled on her and her vision went black.  As her vision cleared she realized she was in Seifer's arms.

            Again.

            They stood there in a quiet (if unexpected) embrace for a moment.  A breeze whispered through the open window, sending a sweet scent into the room.  Seifer looked down and brushed her fringe off her forehead.  

            "Don't worry, I'm with you."

~*        *          *~

Note: Finally!  Another chapter done!  Whoo-hoo!  Anyway, the reason (excuse) for this one taking so long was that I had to move… to another province.  Then I had to wait for about three weeks for internet!  That and I haven't had a weekend alone for a month since all my friends insist on visiting me.  ALL THE TIME.  But that's cool.

Big news for dedicated fans: a new fic is in the works regarding Seifer.  It's his life after the end of the game, I allude to it in this one but I never go into specifics.  It ought to be a good time, I plan on going into the underworld of humanity for the new one.  I'll start it once I finish this one.

So remember to review, it keeps the updates coming a little faster!

Jade_ice17@hotmail.com


	8. Bench of Broken Romances

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, any characters within or placed involved. Original characters and places are my own.

**Chapter VII: Bench of Broken Romances**

Seifer was watching Selphie more than actually checking the rooms. Though her face was sit with a grim determination, there was a paleness that he couldn't ignore. They had been checking all morning and hadn't found anything yet. _Except for a few dirty secrets,_ he thought with amusement as he found a treasure trove of condoms stuffed into a feminine looking box. The finding didn't coincide at all with the investigation, but it did make Seifer wonder about the owner. The rest of the room was decorated in a fashion that spoke of a student that was preoccupied with being a girl. There was far too much pink for Seifer's taste.

"Anything?" Selphie asked hopefully over his shoulder. He turned with a grin to watch her blush at the items. She righted herself and walked into the adjoining room. This room was impeccably clean with few personal items. A small statue of Hyne with a matron saint sat on top of the student's desk. The sight triggered a memory in Seifer that he would rather forget. He gave an involuntary shiver as it refused to be ignored. _There was so much blood…_

"I don't think we'll find anything here." She said looking up from checking underneath the bed and snapping him out of his thoughts. A look crossed her face, "Is something wrong?"

"Sometimes I feel like we're missing something to do with Hyne in this case, but I just can't believe it's religiously motivated." He evaded her question with a statement. He didn't want to tell her about the other part, not yet.

"Yeah, I kinda got that feeling too." Rubbing her arm and looking off into distance, Selphie pondered.

"I think it's time for lunch."

"Alright. I'll go get-"

"No. You're going back to the office and sitting down, I'm getting lunch."

"Seifer."

"No fighting it, besides, you have to keep your strength up." She left the dorm with a huff but Seifer could have sworn he saw a smile.

Seifer just finished picking up two meals to go from the cafeteria and decided to take a quick walk to the quad to clear his thoughts before seeing Selphie again. She had come a little too close to that part of his life that he had put behind him. _Put behind… more like buried._ He thought with a hint of pain. All the events that had lead up to him sitting drunk in a bar flashed through his mind. They were desperate times.

Hearing his name being spoken brought his attention to the present. It sounded like Irvine's voice saying it.

"How could I not?" This time it was Quistis. He quickly hid behind a tree and narrowed in to where the voices were coming from. Through the foliage, he could see Quistis and Irvine sitting on a bench.

"How did you find those names out anyway?" Irvine again.

"You're not the most discreet person I've ever met. If you were going to cheat on Selphie you should have kept your mouth shut, and told her to keep hers shut too. When you just throw away a woman like that, of course they're going to talk. Why would she care if your dirty little secrets got out. She was a stripper Irvine, you don't fuck with the underworld like that."

"But why did you have to tell _him_? You ruined everything Selphie and I had."

"I ruined it! You were the one that couldn't keep your hands to yourself."

"Oh sure, blame it on me. If she never would have found out, we still would have been together."

"That's no way to live Irvine. You can't just go around behind someone's back like that. You can't just have meaningless sex."

"You didn't complain." From where Seifer was he could hear, if not see Quistis take a sharp intake of breath.

"That was only once, and before you and Selphie got together."

"As I remember, it didn't bother you at all."

"Go." He could hear the anger lance through her words. "Just go." Seifer saw Irvine get up, he turned back to Quistis with a condescending smile.

"You better watch out who you talk to in the future." Quistis forcibly held on to the bench while Irvine sauntered off.

Disgust ran down Seifer's spine. He suppressed his rage and went to sit with Quistis on the bench. She was so caught up in her contemplation that she jumped when he sat down.

"What a dick." He leaned back.

"You were listening?" Her eyes not meeting his, a crimson seeped into her face.

"Yeah." Silence.

"Please don't tell Selphie." She wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered. "I never really expected it to happen, and didn't think anything would have come of it. I was so happy for them when they got together. It was almost like I was free from any attachments, and then to have him throw it back in my face like that-" She dropped her forehead onto her hands.

"Hey, it's all right." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Everyone does things that they don't think will matter later. I'm living proof." She smiled weakly up at him.

"Maybe we both should stop living in the past." She put her hand on his knee and a jolt of surprise sent his nerve endings on fire.

Standing up abruptly he said, "I have to bring lunch to Selphie." Seifer watched as understanding and a little pain flashed behind her eyes. _She knew, Oh Hyne, she knew!_

"Have you told her yet"

"No."

"Don't let her slip away."

"I won't."

Later that night Quistis sat with a cup of tea in her hand, staring blankly at the kitchen table. Today hadn't been such a good day. Hell, this last while hadn't been so great. She had taken the job as Head Instructor eight months ago when the old one had retired. It had been one of the proudest moments of her life. After saving the world, she had gotten her dignity back, her instructors license soon followed. Working hard to regain her credibility the old Head Instructor had taken notice and named her for the position in his retirement speech. Surprised, she had given an acceptance speech right then and there at his request.

She'd remember that day forever. They were all there. Everyone that had grown up in the orphanage and the friends they had made along the way. Quistis laughed, she thought she had even seen Seifer there briefly. Knowing smiles had beamed from their faces that day, they had been in on the surprise. Together they had all gone out and celebrated. It was just like when they were young, laughing and making memories without any worries.

But that night she went home alone. It hadn't bothered her that night but now… _Now its just painful. _She had everything going great in her life. Friendships that had been with her during everything were as strong now as they ever were. Her career had taken a wonderful turn that she hadn't expected. Colleagues adored her for her professionalism and dedication. But she still didn't have what she really wanted.

She wanted to be loved for who she was. The feeling of waking up alone every day of her life was wearing her thin. It was making her lonely. The events of today reinforced that. _How could Irvine have said that? _The truth, she told herself, was that she was a little sad when nothing ever came of that night. He had been just the person to break through the self-imposed distance she gave everyone. He was so different from her that it was a thrill that at the time she had wanted more of. And while it was true that she was happy for Selphie and him when they got together she was also a little sad. She had accepted at the time that it just wasn't her time to fall in love, that it was better to be the friend to hear about everything.

Now she was afraid she would always just be that friend. The only guy she had taken notice of in so long had been Yuri, a new instructor. But the very thought of getting into a romance with someone that worked under her made her remember all the doubts she had before. Sitting back and sighing, she reflected. _And then I… I can't believe I hit on Seifer. What's worse is that he-_

A knock cut short her soul searching. She got up to answer the door, a little angry at the interruption. Opening the door and seeing who it was, she spoke in a clipped voice, "Yes, can I help you."

"Can I come in for a minute?"

She thought for a moment on the wisdom of this, but finally gave in. Closing the door behind them, she thought the sound was rather final.

Dear Mother. She was in my room today. I can't believe it, she touched my things. She was right there. But I've found another girl. This one needs to be taught so much Mother. Her Pain is so great. She's so beautiful and her Pain so divine. I didn't want to help any other girls before my symphony but… Every symphony needs a prelude.

Sitting at the table with Seifer, Selphie refilled her coffee cup. They had taken some of the files back from the office to go over again that night since the dorm check had turned up nothing. Officer Leon hadn't been into work today, the station had called saying he would be in tomorrow. Sounded like he was in a bit of trouble over losing it. Her hand self-consciously rose to her arm thinking about yesterday. She had been in worse situations than that, but the fact that someone so young had so much undirected anger was frightening.

Across from her Seifer groaned and shifted positions, never taking his eyes off the page in front of him.

"Frustrating isn't it." He startled and gave her a confused look.

"Huh?" Was she imagining it or did a blush hint at his cheeks?

"The case. It frustrating doing all this work while the killer is still on the loose." He let out a breath she didn't realize he had held.

"Right." An uncomfortable silent settled between them. The papers he was holding fluttered as they hit the table. "Selphie, I-"

A knock at the door reverberated in the dorm. He got up much more quickly than she was expecting and answered it.

"Hi! Could we please speak with SeeD Tilmit?" Came a bubbly voice from the doorway. His muscled arm pulled the door fully open and he stepped back glancing at her. It was Lydia and Sharon from the Garden Festival Committee. "Hi Selphie." She called in greeting.

Selphie gathered the papers into their folders while she replied. "Hello Lydia, what brings you here." She smiled despite the current events.

"Well, myself and Sharon are planning a festival for next Saturday and were wondering if you could help us."

"I'd really like to but I'm very busy with work right now." She said with regret.

"You don't have to do any planning, we've done that. We were hoping you'd be Titania from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' We thought you'd be perfect for the part. You would only have to remember a speech for the beginning of the festivities."

"Um…" Selphie thought about it. One little speech would turn into days of costume fitting and details. "Sorry girls, I really have to say no. Ask Quistis, I'm sure she'd be willing to help."

"Oh." Then Lydia's eyes shone. "That's a great idea! Could you ask her for us? She's a little intimidating."

"Yeah sure." With that, they squealed in delight and left in a flurry of thanks.

"You turned down a chance to be a faerie queen?" Seifer, who had been quiet up to this point, closed the door with a grin.

"Oh be silent."

Quistis leaned against the door with her arms crossed and a similar look on her face. "So what do you want."

"I actually think I might have some information on that serial killer case, but I was too afraid to talk to Selphie right now. I thought I'd let things cool down a little before talking to her."

Quistis turned around to lock the door and thought about how weird this situation was. Something was wrong besides the obvious. She tried to rack her brain for the answer as the lock noisily slid home. Why couldn't she figure out what was wrong.

She leaned against the door trying to think but her thoughts were becoming entangled within each other. Her knees started to rub against the door as she belatedly realized she was slipping towards the floor. Blonde hair was the only thing to cushion her head as it hit the floor. _A sleep spell… but why? _She looked up at her assailant and her sight caught five perfectly placed earrings on the left ear. _Oh._

Quistis barely felt the needle split her skin.

"Do you really think she'll do it?" The ex-Sorceress Knight asked Selphie.

"I'm sure she will with the right amount of coaxing. Besides, she needs to do more fun things." She said as they walked side by side down the hallway. "I'm beginning to think her job is eating her alive." Excitedly she grabbed his arm. "Maybe we should set her up with someone. Yeah, then we could make him Oberon and she'd never know it was us." The smile that graced her reminded Seifer of the rambunctious Messenger Girl from so long ago.

"What do you mean 'we,' I'm having no part of this insanity." At her pout he reiterated, "Well maybe. So long as she doesn't know I'm involved."

"Great! I've been noticing that this new instructor- Yuri I think his name is- has been giving her these longing glances and shuffling around when she's not there." To accompany her words she made the most hilarious dramatic poses. He gave a laugh which she joined in on and put his hand on her shoulder as they reached her door. Seifer was just as pleased with the prospect of seeing Quisty happy as he was that Selphie hadn't nominated him.

She knocked as they tried to contain their laughter. It wouldn't do to let her find out. They heard movement from inside and he gave her a mischievous look while they waited for the door to open. They both broke out in peels of laughter again, doubling over.

They both stopped.

An abyss of red was spreading from behind the door. Panic as she had never felt took over Selphie and she flung herself towards the door, desperately clawing at it. The handle wouldn't turn, so she put her weight behind it slamming herself into the door. She heard a high keening noise crawl from the back of her throat. She was ripped back by a strong hand. _The stitches ripped open_, she thought faintly as she watched the blonde hit the door in a similar manner.

Stepping back he kicked just under the handle. The sound of cracking wood echoed through Selphie's psyche. Splinters fell in slow motion as she lunged into him, providing just enough force to break the door. The door gave, crashing against the wall it was attached to. They both came to a dead halt that seemed to stop time with it. In some fragmented part of her mind she took it all in. The blood, blonde hair turned a deep crimson, and somewhere in the room was movement. Her head snapped up, seeing a foot slide out of the window.

Quistis lay spread on the floor, completely bare of clothing. A rough cross had been etched into her torso starting at the hollow of her throat and ending at her naval. Detailing had begun on the lower section, a bloodied piece of silk lay draped over her lower abdomen. Her eyes were half open staring into the great beyond.

Seifer was trying to get out the window, presumably to chase after the killer. She watched in shock at the futile effort to get his shoulders through. Aggravated he banged his fists against the wall, giving a cry of pure rage.

Slumping to the ground beside her friend, Selphie wrapped her arms around Quistis, pulling her into a sitting position in front. She was still warm and her body gave no resistance as the brunette buried her face into Quistis' neck sobbing. The cloth had fallen away and her heart stopped as she gazed down.

"Selphie" was slashed into her flesh. Grief hard and fast threw her head back and she howled. She vaguely heard an answering mourn come from Seifer. Tears hot and bitter fell unfettered from her eyes as her grip tightened. A jerk reaction came from Quistis.

Time suspended.

She could feel it. She could feel the slow rhythmic pulse of Quistis' heart surge against her skin. A wash of ice crystallized Selphie's veins. Looking up and meeting Seifer's eyes she whispered.

"She's alive."

Note: All right, here's the next chapter even though it took forever. The next one will be much faster, screw university, screw work, and screw everything. I am finishing this fanfic.

I was actually thinking of redoing this fic to make more sense, but then we'd have to start over from square one and I think you guys have been waiting long enough to find out who the killer is.

And if this chapter is any indication, I will be doing the prequel fic about Seifer.

Read and Review

Jadeice17(at)hotmail(dot)com


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